Kaitlin Schuler
Pasta remains a staple to the diet of college students and lazier people of all ages. Boil some water, drop the dried noodles in, and wait only a few minutes before you’ve got soft, delicious shapes to serve with whatever suits you—vegetables, sauces, or (my personal favorite) olive oil. Boxes of any shaped noodles come reasonably priced: a two-pack of Barilla Angel Hair pasta costs $2.56! Macaroni noodles are famous from their use in Kraft Mac and Cheese, or for the on-the-go college kid, Kraft Easy Mac.
Where did this food come from, though? We all know that pasta came from Italy, but that’s about as far as the average person can go into the history of pasta. Let’s take it a little further here, so we can all be better informed about the food that aids us in our laziness and our desire to make a decent meal without too much effort.
Pasta is traditionally associated with Italian food, but it is actually extremely difficult to trace the origins of pasta. It is likely that the Italian version of the noodles were influenced by Asian noodles, commonly thought to have been brought to Italy by Marco Polo in the 13th century. Asian noodles were made with a barley-like substance, however—different from the process the Italians developed.
What we will refer to as pasta is made from unleavened dough consisting of water or eggs and ground durum wheat (see the PBS website below). The durum is what sets pasta apart from other noodles; it helps pasta have a long shelf life when dried and makes it easy to cook with just water—two qualities all stereotypical Americans like to have in their food. The less time it takes to cook, the more time we can spend being productive and changing the world! (Or, watching the last five episodes of House of Cards while thinking about starting your paper due tomorrow…)
In what was his most important contribution to American history, Thomas Jefferson actually helped pasta gain popularity in the United States while he was serving as Minister to France, where he fell in love with macaroni. This could have been any shape of pasta at the time, but he returned with two cases of the pasta and sent for more from a friend in Naples when he ran out.
Pasta was made to be eaten fresh and soon after it was made, but Americans have grown accustomed to eating dried pastas that we’ve imported from Italy. In actuality, many of the pasta companies now have outposts in the United States. Barilla, for example, makes most of the pasta sold in the United States at a plant in Iowa, with a few exceptions of pastas made in and shipped from Italy.
Like most foods when they initially became popular in America, pasta could only be afforded by the upper class until the time of the Civil War. Today, pasta can be dressed up extravagantly with a slew of seasonings and sauces that can include fancy wine and expensive spices. It can also go casual with just cheese or olive oil poured on top. There is a type of pasta out there for every person, even the pickiest of toddlers or the friends with gluten allergies.
Pasta has remained fairly the same throughout history, but Italian immigrants made some changes when they brought the noodles to America. First, meatballs were created because meat was less expensive in America than in Italy. Americans also added large portions and the seasonings of garlic, oregano, and chili pepper flakes to the tradition of pasta.
So, whether you like your noodles plain and simple like me, or covered in meatballs and sauce, we’re brought together by these simple strips and shapes of delicious dough. Next time you eat your Easy Mac for the fifth meal in a row, make sure to remember the history behind it.
References: http://civilwartalk.com/threads/history-of-pasta-in-america.75951/
http://www.barilla.com/faq
http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/uncover--the-history-of-pasta/
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