Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food

Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food
ISBN-10
0231124422
ISBN-13
9780231124423
Series
Pasta
Category
Cookery (Pasta)
Pages
465
Language
English
Published
2002
Publisher
Columbia University Press
Authors
Françoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi

Description

Ranging from the imperial palaces of ancient China and the bakeries of fourteenth-century Genoa and Naples all the way to the restaurant kitchens of today, Pasta tells a story that will forever change the way you look at your next plate of vermicelli. Pasta has become a ubiquitous food, present in regional diets around the world and available in a host of shapes, sizes, textures, and tastes. Yet, although it has become a mass-produced commodity, it remains uniquely adaptable to innumerable recipes and individual creativity. Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food shows that this enormously popular food has resulted from of a lengthy process of cultural construction and widely diverse knowledge, skills, and techniques. Many myths are intertwined with the history of pasta, particularly the idea that Marco Polo brought pasta back from China and introduced it to Europe. That story, concocted in the early twentieth century by the trade magazine Macaroni Journal, is just one of many fictions umasked here. The true homelands of pasta have been China and Italy. Each gave rise to different but complementary culinary traditions that have spread throughout the world. From China has come pasta made with soft wheat flour, often served in broth with fresh vegetables, finely sliced meat, or chunks of fish or shellfish. Pastasciutta, the Italian style of pasta, is generally made with durum wheat semolina and presented in thick, tomato-based sauces. The history of these traditions, told here in fascinating detail, is interwoven with the legacies of expanding and contracting empires, the growth of mercantilist guilds and mass industrialization, and the rise of food as an art form. Whether you are interested in the origins of lasagna, the strange genesis of the Chinese pasta bing or the mystique of the most magnificent pasta of all, the timballo, this is the book for you. So dig in!

Get the book

Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Search the book
eBay.com
eBay.com
Search the book

Other editions

Similar books

  • Vegetables, Pasta and Rice
    Vegetables, Pasta and Rice
    By Reader's Digest Association

    Reader's Digest Association. VEGETABLES , PASTA AND RICE was edited and designed by The Reader's Digest Association , and is based on The Cookery Year , Copyright © 1973 The Reader's Digest Association Limited , London .

  • Pasta Cookbook
    Pasta Cookbook
    By Rh Value Publishing, Random House Value Publishing

    Random House Value Publishing, Rh Value Publishing. Copyright © 1988 Ottenheimer Publishers , Inc. This 1988 edition published by arrangement with Ottenheimer Publishers , Inc. , for Crescent Books , distributed by Crown Publishers ...

  • Skinny Pasta
    Skinny Pasta
    By Sue Spitler

    A collection of healthful recipes for appetizers, soups, salads, sauces, entrees, risotto, and Asian noodles includes complete nutritional information for each dish

  • Classic Asian Noodles
    Classic Asian Noodles
    By Lee Geok Boi

    iice Vermicelli with Crabmeat , Thai - style 56 pakhine Monti Thoke ( Arakan Rice Noodle Salad and Fish Soup ) 58 pancit Guisado ( Fried Noodles , Filipino - style ) 60 Fried Beef Kuay Tiao ( Broad Rice Noodles Fried with Beef ) 96 ...

  • 50 Ways with Pasta
    50 Ways with Pasta
    By Katharine Blakemore

    Showing how pasta can be used in a wide variety of dishes, this book offers a range of combinations to enhance this popular food.

  • The Classic 1000 Pasta and Rice Recipes
    The Classic 1000 Pasta and Rice Recipes
    By Carolyn Humphries

    A title which features 1000 recipes which make use of pasta and rice, and originate from nations as diverse as Wales and China.

  • Pasta
    By Anne Ager

    Pasta

  • Noodles
    Noodles
    By Jody Vassallo

    The publisher wishes to thank the following for their generosity in supplying props for the book : Country Road Homewear ; Made in Japan ; Bison Homewares ; Domestic Pots - pieces by Lex Dickson , Victor Greenaway ; Empire Homeware ...

  • The Rice & Noodle Cookbook: 100 Delicious Step-by-step Recipes
    The Rice & Noodle Cookbook: 100 Delicious Step-by-step Recipes
    By Roz Denny, Christine Ingram

    The 100 recipes in this book present not only all the classic dishes from East and West, but irresistible new flavour combinations.

  • The Mezzaluna Cookbook: Over 100 Recipes for Seasonal Pastas, Pizzas, Carpaccios, and More
    The Mezzaluna Cookbook: Over 100 Recipes for Seasonal Pastas, Pizzas, Carpaccios, and More
    By Aldo Bozzi, Isabel Bau Madden

    The owner and culinary advisor for the famous Mezzaluna restaurants, our nation's best-known trattorias, shares the secrets behind his acclaimed seasonal Italian fare.