AS bit of History

A Bit of History

Pasta has very old origins. The Etruscans used to make a kind of lasagna with spelt mixed with water, The Romans used to make a “schiacciata” (flata bread) consisting of water, flour but no yeast called làgana (from the Greek laganoz and from the latin làganum, Italian lasagne). Cicero and Horatio loved it.

Pasta as we know it (maccheroni, spaghetti, etc.) was born in Sicily and precisely in Trabia near Palermo. A particular type of pasta, called “itryah” in Arabic was made here. Vermicelli di Tria are well known in Palermo even today. At the end of the 18^th century pasta was generally called “maccheroni” and the term included: lasagne, drawn pasta, filled pasta and so on.

Therefore it was not Marco Polo, on his return from his travels to China, to make pasta known in the West since it was already known in times gone by, neither did Neapolitans invent it.

Neapolitans deserve credit though for making long drawn pasta (maccheroni first, spaghetti later) famous in Naples, in Italy and woldwide.

At the beginning of the 19^th century wayfarers are portrayed eating pasta served with cheese and pepper (with their hands) in front of the sellers in the streets of Naples.

The stroke of genius due to the Neapolitans’ gastronomic knowledge is the use of tomato sauce on maccheroni!