So you think you know pasta?

[John Barrows]

Every now and then my faith in the rationality of the world is sustained by article's like the one in today's NY Times by Rachel Donadio entitled "So You Think You Know Pasta".

In the article she talks about ORETTA ZANINI DE VITA, the pre-eminent Italian food historian's new book, "The Encyclopedia of Pasta".

Read the article and be amazed that there are still people and cultures in the world that value their food traditions. Unfortunately they typically seem to be only in places like France and Italy - rather than anywhere in America.

In its 300-odd pages, the “Encyclopedia of Pasta” ranges from abbotta pezziende, a short pasta that means “feed the beggar” in Abruzzo dialect, to the zumari of Puglia, a long pasta traditionally added to vegetable soups. In between there are the corzetti of Liguria and Piedmont, the little stamped-out coins; pi fasacc of Lombardy, which look like little babies in a papoose; avemarie, which cook for as long as it takes to say a Hail Mary; and several dozen variations on macaroni and ravioli. Each illustrated entry lists ingredients, provenance and how the pasta is traditionally served.

The range of shapes shows that cooking “was a way of self-expression for women to show their creativity and imagination with little or no resources,” Ms. Talbott said. She cited gnocchi ricci, or curly gnocchi, a specialty of Amatrice in Lazio, the city famous for spaghetti all’amatriciana, which are made by kneading together one dough made with flour and eggs, another made with flour, boiling water and salt.

The book also reveals much about the narcissism of small differences. In one town in Lazio, she discovered the same pasta called by different names in different parts of town. “Four hundred meters away,” she cried. “As close as my house is from the bus stop down the block. Everywhere you go there are these envies, these stupid provincial arguments.”

Isn’t it enough to make one question how Italy could ever have been unified into a country? Yes, came her quick response. The unification of Italy in the 1860s “was a big error,” she said. “They should have made a country like Switzerland, connected states.”

[Patrick]

The end of the article is the most important and says more than the article itself.
I quote,

"Still, she added, perhaps non-Italians are missing an ingredient. What would be harder for foreigners to do is to invent things, or go on instinct. We have that inside our DNA.”

I would add that this "instinct" is inherent in everyone but lays dormant and unbeckoned.

[Debbie]

"Unfortunately they typically seem to be only in places like France and Italy - rather than anywhere in America."..................The reason for this is because America is a melting pot. America was not built on just one culture or nationality. America is diverse; Europe is not, as it still holds steadfast to its own true cultures. Many cultures make "pasta", by different names. In America much is lost to the dilution of generations and as Patrick states, becomes or lays dormant or unbeckoned; if not lost.