HISTORY OF PASTA

Ancient in its origins and hallowed in its traditions, pasta continues to serve as a comfort food for millions of people. The evolution of pasta’s creation and distribution attracts just as much attention as its flavor. Entering the mouths of millions every day, pasta could never have reached such a wide audience if it wasn’t for the development of machinated processes and the commitment of a few special individuals. The pasta machine allows people all over the world to enjoy the luxury of fresh pasta, and will continue to do so long into the future. The history of the pasta machine subverts convention but cultivates fascination.

Before the birth of pasta machines can be detailed, the process of how pasta itself first came to reside in Italy must be explained. China lays claim to the oldest noodles ever discovered, these resilient carbohydrates date back seven thousand years. The Romans also developed a pasta-like substance made of flour water and salt that took on the shape of a disk. Instead of boiling the disks, the Romans roasted them, not unlike pizza.

Historical records indicate that Arab traders consumed noodles and occasionally added cheese to the mix. Italian and Chinese history indicates visitation from Arabic peoples. On occasion credit goes to the Arabs for inventing pasta, although the Chinese could have invented it while the Arabs propagated it through trade and brought it to the shores of Italy. The ancient Chinese noodles did consist of different ingredients than the durum wheat flour based pasta the Italians uphold.

The earliest account of pasta mentioned in Italy occurred in a Genoese soldier’s unearthed estate documents dated from the year 1279, “una bariscella plena de macaronis.” Curing in Naples’ unique climate (not too humid & not too dry), dried pasta grew in popularity during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries due to its portability and longevity. Ships stocked up on the product before they set sail and knew that their supply of carbohydrates would not taint on the journey.

By the seventeenth century, pasta found itself in every Italian home. Long pasta such as spaghetti and vermicelli though, were looked upon as the peasant’s pasta. The noodles, served plain and eaten with hands, repulsed the upper class that munched on layered pasta dishes (lasagna). Everything changed though when a tomato landed in a clever chef’s hand. Tomato sauced pasta necessitated a fork and added a particular flavor which put the long noodles on par with the other high class pastas. If anyone argues that pasta is not Italian, they must remember that tomato sauce certainly is Italian.

Now that a brief history of pasta and a knowledge of its rise to popularity has been established, we can take a look at how it came to be produced from metal rollers and hand cranks.

PASTA MACHINE HISTORY

The first documented evidence of the existence of Pasta machines can be found in Thomas Jefferson’s personal notes. The notes, located in the library of congress, detail a tour of northern Italy in 1787. The weathered pages include plans for an early macaroni machine. He built his own machine afterwards but only used it in his own domestic environment, but his observation provides evidence that pasta machines were under construction in the eighteenth century.

In 1824, the Italian Agnese family capitalized on the popularity of pasta by erecting the first pasta factory. The employees kneaded the dough with their feet, similar to the grape crushing process, and crafted the pasta by hand. Workers performed these duties without any machinated assistants but it was a large step towards the industrialization of pasta. Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, (a known pasta enthusiast) came to visit one of the pasta factories in his kingdom. The King, appalled at the sight of peasants pounding dough with their feet, commissioned Cesare Spadaccini to mechanize the process. Sometime between 1833 and 1834 Spadaccini unveiled a dough-kneading machine that replaced bare footed men with bronzed mechanical legs to stomp the dough. Soon after its invention, engineers retrofitted the machine with a water wheel. The new ‘automated’ version took off and kneaded dough all over Italy leaving even more pasta factories to spring up in its wake.
Pasta creation from then on became more and more automated until a wild man tinkering in his basement created what we now know as ‘The Pasta Machine’. Angelo Vitantonio, an Italian who immigrated to Ohio, patented the machine in 1906 ‘officially’ making it the first pasta machine. This little invention caught on faster than the radio in the Italian/American community making Vitantonio a celebrity in Cleveland’s Murray Hill neighborhood. The gadget Vitantonio created now resides in houses all across the world.

Since it’s invention electric motors have been added to accompany, or replace, the hand crank and larger scale machines now manufacture pasta at the rate of several kilograms per hour. Though automation advanced the pasta making industry, the commercial machines of today still rely on the concepts of Spadaccini and Vitantonio.

Pumping out pasta at rates in excess of eighty kilograms an hour, mechanical ingenuity and the marvel of electricity has revolutionized the pasta making industry. Though many restaurants still utilize the hand cranked pasta machines found in domesticity, most of the pasta we consume comes from automated machines. Stuffed pasta such as ravioli and tortellini, which typically take ages to make, spit out of these machines at unprecedented speeds. The cost and upkeep of these mechanical beasts repels the average consumer who enjoys a pasta meal every now and then but has no use for extremely large quantities of fresh pasta. For the entrepreneur though, a commercial pasta machine may prove itself a worthy investment. The smaller ‘man-powered’ contraptions provide enough processing power for a family or a quaint restaurant. Unless feverish desire provokes the individual to commence his or her own pasta forging factory, the type of pasta machine that fits on the counter does the trick.

If one ever asks one’s self, “why should I even bother making fresh pasta?” Say no more. The real defining factor between pastas does not necessarily lie in the freshness but in the quality and variety of ingredients. Pasta made of durum wheat flour (Semolina) and traditional spices generally gets an A+ rating at any table, but when made from stale flour and typical iodized table salt, results tend to receive a less favorable response. However, when preparing thicker pastas such as lasagna sheets or tortellini, the fresh version cooks to a pleasing al dente with greater ease. Since fresh pasta contains egg and more moisture, the cooking time is reduced by about fifty percent. So the time it takes to roll out the pasta makes up for itself. The culinary romance and sense of accomplishment associated with making one’s own pasta decides whether or not to go ahead and get a pasta machine, the flavor won’t typically make a firm enough case on its own.

Across Italy, pasta and pasta making intertwine with tradition and firmly blend with the established culture of the region. If one desires to create one’s own culinary tradition, making pasta is quite possibly the best place to start; the ingredients are readily available and the option to expand into mechanical assistance has already been invented. The most important thing about processing your own food is to take pride in your product and most of all: to have fun while doing it.