Etymology of the word dough: The word dough comes from the Latin pasta, itself derived from the Latinization of the Greek term παστά (“ porridge bybarley ”), which explains why the generic term macaroni was used for a long time before adopting the specific term dough.
Description of pasta: They come in a wide variety of shapes, strips (lasagna), ribbons (noodles in French, linguine or tagliatelle in Italian, 面条, miantiao in Chinese), threads (vermicelli, spaghetti), tubing (macaroni), cushions (ravioli in French, ravioli in Italian, 饺子jiaozi in Chinese), etc. Dry pasta has a water content of 12%.
The name pasta with eggs can only be used for pasta containing at least 140 g of whole eggs or yolks per kilogram of semolina.
There is also pasta wheat no vacancy.
Dried pasta has many advantages: economical food, easy to preserve thanks to dehydration, energetic and easy to cook since all you need is a pan of water.
Fresh pasta, however, has a stronger taste. The French, Chinese and Italians, in particular, continue to produce fresh pasta by hand, which tastes different from that of dehydrated and packaged pasta, but its nutritional content is not significantly different.
Difference between dry pasta and fresh pasta: Dry pasta sold commercially is generally made from durum wheat semolina, with a moisture content of less than 12%; some contain eggs but also may contain herbs and the like.
The diversity of shapes of dry pasta comes from the fact that they are extruded. The mixture of water and semolina in a pasty state is passed through a forming machine by pressure. The different shapes are obtained from particular nozzles.
The composition of fresh pasta is regulated in France. The term "fresh pasta with fresh eggs" presupposes the meeting of three conditions: a humidity rate greater than 12%, a semolina de durum wheat of superior graded quality, and a minimum of 140 grams of eggs per kilogram of semolina.
The process of making fresh pasta is called “rolling”. The pasty mixture is flattened until a thin sheet about one millimeter thick is obtained. Thus, we often speak of double rolling for so-called “four-corner” ravioli for which two sheets of pasta are superimposed, then sealed, after the filling has been injected. Conversely, we speak of “cushion” ravioli for those made from a single sheet of dough. The sheet of dough can also be passed through a rolling machine to cut out ribbons (fettuccini).
Pasta can also be homemade using a pasta machine (roller), but drying is not within the reach of family production. Only manufacturers manage to produce dry pasta.
History of pasta: The oldest traces of pasta known to date are noodles of the lā miàn (拉面) (hand-drawn) type, made of flour from two millets, setaria italica and panicum miliaceum, found in the ruins of Lajia (喇家), in China and dated to -2000.
The term paste comes from the Low-Latin pasta, of the same meaning. The pasta reputed to be the best comes mainly from Italy, and from China, these pastas, in both cases, have influenced neighboring countries which have been able to create particular varieties of noodles (France, Korea, Japan, Vietnam).
A legend says that, returning from his trip to China in 1295, Marco Polo brought them back to Venice and gave them a new notoriety, however, cuneiform tablets, translated in 1994, attribute to them a Mesopotamian culinary paternity dating back several millennia.
-2000: Handmade millet noodles, in Lajia, China.
XNUMXth century ~ XNUMXnd century BC, the Silk Road connects Europe and China.
August 24, 79, machines for making noodles are buried, during the explosion of Vesuvius in Pompeii.
During the Three Kingdoms period (220 – 265), Zhang Yi (张揖), wrote around 227 to 232 in his glossary, titled Guǎngyǎ (广雅 / 廣雅, guǎngyǎ), the recipe for Chinese boiled dumplings.
XNUMXth century: a text by Apicius describes a dish that could be mistaken for lasagna.
800: There are traces of dry pasta made from durum wheat semolina around 800. It was introduced by the Muslim conquerors of Sicily, and in the XNUMXth century Maritime Republics of Genoa and Pisa commercialized dry pasta.
1154: the Arab geographer Al Idrisi refers in his writings to pasta from Trabia, a village near Palermo in Sicily. Caravans crossing the Arab Empire already fed on dried stewed pasta, which cooks in meat broth, known as rishta-s, lakhsha-s and itriyya-s, ancestors of tagliatelle, fetuccine and linguine. This is one of the first written records relating to pasta.
1295: legend has it that Marco Polo, returning to Venice after his fabulous trip to China, introduced pasta to Italy. However, in his book il Milione this one says about the lasagna made in China that they are “…good, as much as those that I ate so many times in Italy”.
XNUMXth century: the Papacy establishes quality standards for pasta.
XNUMXth century: pasta began to be stuffed in Europe, more than ten centuries after China.
XNUMXth century: the importation of pasta into France developed following the marriage of Catherine de Medici with Henri II of France.
1837: the Neapolitan Duke Ippolito Cavalcanti, lists the dough recipes of the Italian peninsula in 1837 in his guide " Theoretical practical cooking » and evokes cooking for the first time and cook until pasta is.
1933: Italy develops a law regulating the trade and production of pasta.
1934: in France, a law requires pasta to be made from durum wheat semolina.
2009: The National Pasta Association (NPA) and the International Pasta Organization (IPO) launch World Pasta Day, which takes place every year on October 25.
Cooking pasta: Cooking allows pasta to acquire its taste and consistency: starch, an essential constituent of pasta, separates in the presence of water. This process is accelerated by cooking.
Assortment of Italian pasta: The shape of the pasta is, in addition to the visual aspect, important from a taste point of view: a liquid sauce will need hollow pasta to carry this one, pasta cooked in the oven must be able to withstand a relatively long cooking time that the accompaniment may require.
There are two ways to cook pasta: cooking half-covered over low heat with just enough water to cover the pasta, and cooking al dente. Slow cooking requires less energy and was used mainly in southern Italy, a poorer region than the north. Nowadays, pasta is cooked al dente in Italy.
Shapes and colors of pasta: The shapes and colors are countless. The pasta has different shapes so that the sauce sticks better and does not stay at the bottom of the plate (as sometimes with spaghetti, For example). Even more than the shape, the surface appearance of the dough helps to hang the sauce: the quality of the semolina and the wheat that composes it comes into play here. The rougher the surface, reminiscent of the semolina base, the more the dough will hang the sauce. They can be classified into the following main categories:
Long pasta (pasta lunga), as opposed to short pasta: Spaghetti, noodles, spaghettini, linguine, bucatini (with holes), fusilli lunghi, angel hair (capellini).
Ribbons (fettucine): Flat noodles, tagliatelle, pappardelle, tonnarelli, fettuccine, tagliolini, paglia e fieno (straw and hay).
Tubes (tubi): Cavatappi, Penne lisce (smooth), penne rigate (striped), penne ziti, pennoni, garganelli.
Chifferi, gigantoni, rigatoni
Long or sometimes short macaroni
Elbow tubes (tubi): Short macaroni, shells, pipe (lisce, rigate, etc.)
Pasta farcies (pasta ripiena): agnolotti, capelletti, cannelloni, jiaozi, pansoti, panzerotti, pierogi, pelmeni, ravioli, raviolini, ravioli, tortelloni, tortellini.
Lasagna
Fancy shapes, stuffed and flavored pasta
Gnocchi, malloreddus, snails, ears, heaters, rooster combs
Seashells of various sizes and shapes
Wheel, propeller, strozzapreti, farfalle (bow tie)
Soup pasta (pasta per minestra): Accini di pepe, alfabetini, anelli, farfaline, quadrucci, ramen, risoni, la mian stelline, tubetti, vermicelli.
Dyes for pasta: The colors are obtained by mixing a colored ingredient with the dough:
- Blue : methylene blue ou curacao
- Brown : champignons ou cocoa bitter or the Chestnut flour, leaving a slightly sweet taste to the pasta.
- YELLOW : safran or yellowœuf
- Black : squid ink
- Orange : carrot
- Red : tomato ou beet
- Green : basil ou spinach ou ortie ou parsley.
Consumption and production of pasta: With 28 kg per year and per person, Italy is by far the biggest consumer in the world, followed by Venezuela and Tunisia with less than half per inhabitant.
Italy, with 3 tonnes for 191, is the world's leading producer, followed by the United States and Brazil with 505 million and 2015 million tonnes respectively. 2% of Italian production is exported.
Intolerances and allergies (gluten): Genetic selections have increased gluten and prolamin levels. There are several types of intolerance, from partial to very serious. The proportion of the population suffering from these intolerances or allergies is steadily increasing without detection, or the causes and consequences being very well identified. The precautionary principle imposes vigilance and research on seeds, in particular thespelled and l'einkorn (einkorn). Faced with the many questions, the associations bring together people who are aware. The main alternatives are pasta with corn et Chinese rice noodles (still relatively little known and marginal). They are slowly investing in supermarket shelves. In serious cases of celiac disease, social security has validated some refundable products guaranteed gluten-free.
(See here the List of foods with or without gluten).
Pasta in and art:
– Literature: Pasta plays a central role in the plot of some literary works. For example:
The Pasta Man, by Michel Field.
The Thief of Nostalgia, by Hervé Le Tellier.
The Commedia of Failures, by Tonino Benacquista.
The year of spaghetti, from the collection of short stories Blind Willows, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami.
– Movies:
Spaghetti et tutti quanti, 1952 documentary written by Roberto Cena, directed by Stefano Tealdi, 2007, broadcast on France 5
Tampopo, is a Japanese film by Jūzō Itami, released in 1985, telling the story of Tampopo, a Japanese restaurateur who tries to find the recipe for the ultimate noodle soup.
Finally, it is necessary to point out a "pastophile" sect whose members call themselves the Pastafarians, who, apart from venerating pasta (especially spaghetti), can be recognized by the colander they carry on their heads. See Pastafarianism.