The Authentic Pasta Book [antikvár]

Introduction Pasta, an ancient staple in the Italian diet, is uniquely suited to what cooks and eaters want today: economy, nutrition, elegance, and adaptability to individual taste. It appeals to those aware of health because of its low fat and high protein content. Pasta is inexpensive and nutritious—one pound feeds twice as many people as a pound of lean meat and has only half the calories. The quick preparation of most pasta dishes means that active, busy people can make and eat a good meal in a short period of time. In entertaining, few repasts are as elegant, inexpensive, and pleasing as an imaginative pasta dish. For the creative cook, pasta is a food suited for improvisation. Finally, in a time when more people eat many meals alone, few foods rival pasta as the center of a lunch or dinner for one. Back in Greek and Roman times there surely was food made of flour and water that resembled pasta. Many scholars speculate that the dish the Romans called lagana was the forerunner of what is now known as lasagne. Pasta in Italian means paste or dough. This dough was cut into dumplings (gnocchi) or roUed out and cut into noodles such as spaghetti or tagliatelle. "Noodle" comes from the Latin nodellus (little knot), suggesting the way some pasta gets twisted into a series of knots in a bowl. In ancient times comparable foods were eaten in China, Japan, India, Thrace, and in the Arab world. If Marco Polo brought Chinese noodles back to Venice in 1279, it was probably to compare them with the pasta akeady made on the Italian peninsula. Spaghetti, it seems, first appeared in Sicily, though the date is uncertain. Pasta was first made commercially in small shops. It was sold in