The Discovery of Pasta: A History in Ten Dishes

by Luca Cesari, Johanna Bishop (Translation)

What is Italy without pasta? Come to think of it, where would the rest of us be without this staple of global cuisine? An acclaimed Italian food writer tells the colorful and often-surprising history of everyone’s favorite dish.

In this hugely charming and entertaining chronicle of everyone’s favorite dish, acclaimed Italian food writer and historian Luca Cesari draws on literature, history, and many classic recipes in order to enlighten pasta lovers everywhere, both the gourmet and the gluten free.

What is Italy without pasta? Come to think of it, where would the rest of us be without this staple of global cuisine? The wheat-based dough first appeared in the Mediterranean in ancient times. Yet despite these remote beginnings, pasta wasn’t wedded to sauce until the nineteenth century. Once a special treat, it has been served everywhere from peasant homes to rustic taverns to royal tables, and its surprising past holds a mirror up to the changing fortunes of its makers. Full of mouthwatering recipes and outlandish anecdotes—from (literal) off-the-wall 1880s cooking techniques to spaghetti conveyer belts in 1940 and the international amatriciana scandal in 2021—Luca Cesari embarks on a tantalizing  and edifying journey through time to detangle the heritage of this culinary classic.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Food, Italy, Cooking, Cookbooks, Food and Drink

363 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 3, 2023

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review This was not what I expected at all! It was a history book of ten different pasta dishes that went into extraordinary detail about the provenance, ingredients and which, if any recipe could be considered the original and/or most authentic. Sometimes, most of the time, it all got a bit much. Take tortellini. Do we really care why they are called tortellini more than a couple of sentences worth of explanation? The author thinks we will.

At this point, we should make a slight linguistic digression to look at the names that are used for different filled pastas by the various authors cited here. While texts from the Middle Ages employ only the words ‘tortelli’, ‘tortelletti’ or ‘ravioli’, in the Renaissance such terms begin to multiply. In addition to the oldest and most generic name, ‘tortelli’, we start to find the term ‘annolini’ – which gradually ushers in the variants ‘agnolini’ and ‘agnellotti’ – and finally ‘cappelletti’. Judging by the way that the earliest cookbook authors use them, it is clear that these terms were initially thought of as synonyms.

Today, the nomenclature has crystallised into different names for clearly defined forms that have to be kept straight. In Mantua, if you ask for pumpkin cappellacci instead of tortelli, people may point you down the road to Ferrara; the same goes for those who confuse Romagna’s cappelletti with Bologna’s tortellini. But any reconstruction of the history of filled pasta, whatever the kind, must take this previous interchangeability of the terms into account, because they were being constantly swapped until the twentieth century. Much as it may annoy the more intransigent pasta fans of today, old recipe books contain references to both ‘cappelletti alla bolognese’ and ‘tortellini alla romagnola’ at least up to the 1940s. Likewise, there was nothing strange about saying that ‘tortellini alla bolognese’ should be twisted into the form of ‘cappelletti’, because the first term was referring to the type of filled pasta, and the second to the final hat-like shape.

You get all that? It was interesting, kind of, but the whole book was like this plus some recipes, some old, some new, most featuring something pig/cured and parmesan cheese.

The only thing I learned from the book that was interesting, was that al dente is very modern. In times gone by (not necessarily very long gone by, before the explosion of tourism in Italy and Italian food culture everywhere else mainly the US) it was overcooked and soft. Stuff we would reject. So if you go to a place that overcooks the pasta, you can say to yourself, this was the old, traditional, original way of cooking pasta, till it was a soft mess.

3.25 stars because the extreme detail kind of appealed to me, it was soothing bedtime reading and if I forgot anything, it didn't seem to matter.

[Nostalgiaplatz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sapevate che la ricetta della carbonara venne stampata per la prima volta nei primi anni ’50… e negli Stati Uniti? E che in quelle prime versioni era previsto l’uso della pancetta, ma volendo anche del prosciutto, che l’uovo si faceva rapprendere, e si aggiungeva la panna?
E che nell’amatriciana si metteva la cipolla? E che i pinoli, nel pesto alla genovese, ci sono arrivati solo qualche decennio fa?
E che, in generale, mentre ora la pasta la mangiamo al dente e schifiamo gli stranieri che la stracuociono o la usano come accompagnamento alla carne… lo facevamo anche in Italia, un tempo?
A parte queste e altre interessanti nozioni da tirare fuori la prossima volta che qualcuno arriccerà il naso sgridandovi “nooo, non si fa la carbonara con la pancetta”, il libro è interessantissimo, nella sua storia della pasta, delle più famose ricette e dell’evoluzione delle nostre abitudini alimentari. Le ricette mutano, si legano ai cambiamenti della società, delle abitudini, e anche agli eventi storici… la gastronomia è davvero cultura, ed è in continua evoluzione.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am shook. Cesari, a food historian, takes almost every food purist myth about pasta and blows it open. It turns out that so much of what we believe to be true about pasta is based on falsehoods and so much of what we call traditional and authentic is the result of a recent evolution. This will blow minds though I suspect some of the people who need to read it most are too close minded. A surprising number of ‘traditional’ ‘classic’ pasta dishes are influenced by American tastes of the 1950s. Food and recipes are constantly evolving and this book demonstrates that with real scholarship. Thinking deeply about authenticity is something I’ve doing a lot lately and this book came to me at the perfect moment.

[Tymciolina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Książka dla tych, którym przejadł się kulinarny fanatyzm.

Do pasji doprowadzają mnie kulinarni neofici. Ich ton wyższości i protekcjonalizm nieudolnie przysłaniający brak wyobraźni, smaku i zdolności. Przyprawia mnie o mdłości gardłowanie się o jedyny i prawdziwy przepis na carbonarę.

Luca Cesari stworzył panaceum na te bolączki. Książkę udowadniającą na podstawie analizy źródeł z bez mała kilku tysięcy lat, iż kuchnia to proces, a przepisy ewoluują. I że ewolucji nic nie zatrzyma choćby było to nie na rekę wszelkiej maści snobom i ludziom nabijającym kabzę dzięki przemysłowi turystycznemu i magii oznaczeń geograficznych.

Dowiedziałam się od kiedy Włosi jedzą makaron al dente, czy śmietana istotnie stanowi taką profanację, czy guanciale od zawsze stanowi jedynie dopuszczalny składnik carbonary, z czego robiono kiedyś gnocchi - i dobrze mi z tą wiedzą.

Doprawdy była to smakowita lektura.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was worthwhile because it made me hungry. If a book with this title and cover doesn't make you want to immediately scarf down 10 different types of pasta, it should never have been published. Fortunately, The Discovery of Pasta turned out to be the catalyst for several pasta dishes more than I had planned for a week - a high bar for someone who is already Italian. And I learned stuff, too!

One of my favorite things about Cesari's account of 10 famous Italian pasta dishes is his emphasis on supposed "tradition" and where it actually comes from. The pasta gods did not impart these recipes to us from atop Mount Ragu alla Bolognese (which that dish is in fact called). They changed over time. Much of which Italians scoff at today - overcooked pasta, cream in carbonara, interchanging guanciale with pancetta - was done by many a past Italian in the evolution of these recipes! Overcooked pasta is still gross, though. I'm sorry.

I do think, though, that this book would have been improved (for me) by excluding just a few recipes per chapter. Say, eight. I do not typically read recipes recreationally, and after the tenth or so recitation of ingredients for bolognese sauce, a film began to form over my eyeballs. I also would have appreciated a little more detail on the Italian history that led us to these recipes, but Cesari writes for an audience of Italian nationals who probably know this, so maybe that's my fault. It still provided me with useful tidbits to impart while visiting my Italian family this Christmas. So that's something!

Note on the format: I read the translation into English by Johanna Bishop, who not only had to translate Cesari's text, but dozens of recipes and even a few poems. If she was the one who translated the poems, she did an admirable job.

[Romulus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Książka nie tylko dla fanów gotowania, czy kuchni włoskiej. Autor rzeczowo udowadnia w niej, na „bazie” dwunastu makaronowych dań kuchni włoskiej, że bycie kulinarnym purystą nie ma za wiele sensu a juz na pewno nie ma historycznego uzasadnienia. Nie ma jedynie słusznego przepisu na amatricianę, lazanię, czy inne rzekomo uświęcone tradycją dania. Co więcej, niektóre tradycyjne przepisy wcale nie sięgają korzeniami średniowiecza, ale połowy XX wieku. Więc pętanie ich więzami tradycji i przepisami prawa nie ma sensu. A cechą tradycji jest jej zmienność i nie chodzi tylko o tradycję kulinarną. Ale autor udowadnia to właśnie w odniesieniu do niej.

[Michał Richert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Książka w przystępny sposób zapoznaje czytelnika z kulinarną historią Włoch a jednocześnie zachęca do liberalizacji nastawienia wobec eksperymentowania w kuchni, tym samym w końcu mogę zjeść carbonare tak jak chcę bez wyrzutów sumienia. Jeśli coś mogę zarzucić książce to czasami przytłaczająca ilość przepisów często mało od siebie się różniących, a przede wszystkim wzbudzanie niepohamowanego głodu po lekturze ( koniecznie trzeba coś zjeść zanim się sięgnie po ten tytuł )

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zeer goed leesbaar culinair-historische bundel. Tijdens het lezen liep het water me continu in de mond. Cesari duikt dieper in tien wereldberoemde Italiaanse gerechten en hij maakt duidelijk dat de gerechten waarvan je Italiaans kookpuristische buurman bezweert dat ze absoluut op een bepaalde manier bereid moeten worden, in het gunstigste geval pas 50 jaar op die manier bereid worden. Taal is politiek, maar koken ook. Cesari maakt dat andermaal duidelijk door middel van dit verrukkelijke boek.

[Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro molto interessante, lo consiglio a tutti quelli che si interessano sulle origini dei piatti principali di pasta italiani.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been reading Luca Cesari’s “The Discovery of Pasta” about the historical context of Italian food. You would expect it to be a super cute lighthearted book full of charming anecdotes like “And so the Genoans discovered wild basil and decided to make pesto,” but it’s actually incredibly bleak.

You’ll be reading something like, “And so, we think that pasta alla carbonara, which is a wonderful dish combining pasta guanciale and pecorino was initially eaten by the carbonari, charcoal burners who went to the mountains to gather woods and transform it into charcoal. These carbonari had really really shitty lives, just awful, even worse than the average Italian peasant. But if you think they were eating anything as indulgent as pasta, you’d be WRONG. They ate mostly GRUEL and HOPE for breakfast. Anyway! Back to spaghetti alla carbonara. To prepare it, you need just the right pecorino.” And if that’s not whiplash I don’t know what is.

Anyway it’s a fun book!

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love history and I love pasta. This book feels like it was written for me.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is the take-away that Americans really have played a huge role in shaping Italian sensibilities as to what passes for traditional pasta? Then say it

[Eleni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ένα βιβλίο ��ια τα πιάτα της ιταλικής παράδοσης που πρέπει να το διαβάσει ο κάθε Ιταλός πεπεισμένος πως αυτά είναι τα παλαιότερα και αμετάβλητα στους αιώνες των αιώνων.
Ο συγγραφέας, κάνοντας μια έρευνα που πε��ιλαμβάνει ιστορικά στοιχεία και βιβλιογραφία των πρώτων βιβλίων μαγειρικής, μας αποδεικνύει πως τα πιάτα που γνωρίζουμε στη σύγχρονη μαγειρική, δεν ήταν πάντα έτσι.
Η καρμπονάρα κάποτε είχε κρέμα γάλακτος, η αματριτσιάνα ΔΕΝ είχε ντομάτα και τα λαζάνια στη Μπολόνια εμφανίστηκαν μόλις το προηγούμενο αιώνα (απανωτά τα εγκεφαλικά των Ιταλών, ετοιμάστε το οξυγόνο για το τελευταίο: οι προπάπποι τους τρώγαν τα ζυμαρικά μαγειρεμένα πολύ καλά - όχι al dente!!!!! )
Αναρωτιέμαι αν κι εμείς στην Ελλάδα κάναμε μια παρόμοια έρευνα και ανακαλύπταμε πως το εθνικό μας φαγητό δεν είναι ο μουσακάς αλλά....ας πούμε....η φασολάδα!

Υ.Γ : Από εδώ και στο εξής νομίζω θα σκέφτομαι πολύ πριν "κατσαδιάσω" τη μάνα μου που κάνει τα μακαρόνια λάσπη και θα έχω λιγότερες τύψεις αν στη καρμπονάρα βάλω pancetta κι όχι guanciale.

[Joe Hilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whenever I read any culinary history I always end up thinking of that cliché about the past bring a different country. Yes there's a playful takedown of traditionalist Italian food culture here, and yes the paths Cesari traces out to each dish are interesting, but for me the real draw is the miscellany of truly deranged things people have felt the need to do with pasta over the years. Chicken gizzards in the sauce might makes sense when times are lean, but adding dates just feels like an expensive way to ruin a lasagna. Things start to feel a little repetitive towards the end (it turns out most pasta followed a cheese in the middle ages - cheese and raisins in the Renaissance - cheese and meat/tomatoes today pattern), but as someone with a casual interest-edging into obsession with pasta this book was pretty much perfect.

[Rudj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro assolutamente necessario, in un periodo in cui il "gastropurismo" ha raggiunto livelli di intrasigenza assolutamente inaccettabile. Perché i puristi dimostrano spesso di non conoscere affatto le vere tradizioni e la storia dei piatti che si affannano a difendere.
Studiando le cronache, i ricettari e le testimonianze dirette che sono sopravvissute dal passato Cesari ci mostra come molte delle cose che diamo per assodato riguardo a ricette amatissime non siano legate indissolubilmente alla nascita, ma frutto di una lenta evoluzione.
Sullo stesso argomento consiglio anche Denominazione di origine inventata di Alberto Grandi.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting & informative, but repetitive

[Ang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting facts, but kinda slow, and the historical recipes...kinda boring.

[Kelly - readinginthe419 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you know that cooking pasta al dente, or in tomato sauce is a relatively new tradition? That using eggs to make the pasta is a fairly new technique? Or that lasagna-type recipes date back to the Medieval period? If you loved Anthony Tucci's Taste, or movies like Julie and Julia, this may be for you.

In The Discovery of Pasta, renowned food writer and historian exams 10 "traditional" Italian pasta dishes, revealing that so much of what we believe to be true about pasta is based on falsehoods and so much of what we call traditional and authentic is the result of a recent evolution. I loved reading about the evolution of many dishes and enjoyed the reflection on the roles of French cuisine, American tastes and of course, food scarcity (or availability) in the role of developing dishes we know and love today.

The book does tend toward some very historical and detailed information but learning about chefs and recipes from Medieval and Renaissance times lent an air of authenticity to the entire book. And not everyone agreed on what was the "true" nature of any one dish. From Genoa to Bologna and Tuscany to Rome to Naples, you'll be immersed in the history of pasta and Italian cooking.

[Krzysztof Garmulewicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Na wstępie muszę przyznać, że sam lubię makron delikatnie twardy, taki, jaki być „powinien”. Wiem, jak „powinna” wyglądać amatricana, do pesto dodaję orzeszki piniowe, a carbonarę potrafię przyrządzić tak, by sos bez dodawania śmietany był kremowy. Jestem więc poniekąd winny kulinarnego snobizmu, z którym rozprawia się książka.

A wytrąca ona argumenty z rąk zelotów włoskiej kuchni. Fakt, że nie istnieje jedyny prawdziwy przepis na żadną potrawę, a kuchnia to wciąż trwająca ewolucja, jest oczywisty dla każdego, kto ma choć odrobinę zdrowego rozsądku. Autor natomiast poddaje to zagadnienie historycznej analizie i nie pozostawia już żadnych wątpliwości, odzierając wiele „klasycznych” przepisów z mitu uświęcenia wielowiekową tradycją.

Z lektury czytelnik dowie się, że za przepisem na wspomnianą carbonarę nie stoją legendarni dziewiętnastowieczni węglarze. Prawdziwe perypetie tego i innych przepisów są tyleż zaskakujące, co otwierające oczy. Choć i często znacznie mniej romantyczne. Ale ten brak romantyzmu pozwala na korzystanie z przepisów swobodnie i bez kompleksów. Czas zastąpić guancale zwyczajnym polskim boczkiem.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Luca Cesari shatters nearly every food purist’s myth about traditional Italian cuisine in this exceedingly well-researched deep dive into ten classic recipes that typify pasta.

These dishes, all classics of Italian cuisine, may seem to be the epitome of traditional cooking but just how traditional they are needs some detective work: like how adding cream to spaghetti carbonara was a sure way to make the sauce smooth and rich in the 1980s but is now deemed a culinary heresy. While al dente only became the way to cook pasta recently. The vast majority of what we understand to be traditional pasta is actually influenced by American tastes during the 1950s.

However, there does come a point where you feel overloaded. The author insists that we need to know the detailed linguistic and culinary history of how tortellini took their current form when a few lines would do; his passion for food and for food history are clear on every page.

There are plenty of interesting variations of classic recipes to try and as one reads this history of pasta, the only constant in tradition is change. May pasta keep innovating and keep being delicious!

[Magnolitaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Nel giro di mezzo secolo, o forse meno, la cucina italiana è diventata estremamente popolare e apprezzata, soprattutto all'estero, e l'esportazione dei nostri prodotti non ha mai smesso di
crescere. […] Il successo è stato tanto esteso quanto fulminante, per condizioni che oggi non sono più replicabili. Questa tacita consapevolezza è il motivo per cui si accendono gli animi degli italiani quando si parla di pasta e per cui negli ultimi anni è stata messa in atto una sorta di politica protezionistica fin troppo rigida e dogmatica nei confronti della cultura gastronomica nazionale. L'eccessiva ortodossia, il rispetto conformistico delle regole, l'esagerata attenzione a non urtare la suscettibilità dei gastropuristi hanno creato un clima culinary correct mai sperimentato prima.
Per fortuna la cucina è e resterà un enorme patrimonio condiviso, alla cui crescita contribuiscono tanto i grandi chef quanto le nonne. Nessuno può sapere quale sarà il prossimo passo. Ma se la storia della pasta insegna qualcosa è che l’unica costante della tradizione è il cambiamento.”

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as brief as the name suggests, and probably could have done with some aggressive editing to whittle out the interesting anecdotes from a deep dive into the archives of dusty Italian libraries. The meta narrative is great though - the 'ancient' tradition of Italian pasta that is so fiercely guarded and so reverently talked about is largely an illusion: the famous pasta dishes are not as old as we think, don't trace their lineage back to peasant food in the middle ages, and really reflect the cross-Atlantic Italian-American culture more than anything else. The current status of pasta in Italy (concreted into 'official' certified recipes that are unique to a region) is an exception to the rule of food - constantly evolving and changing to reflect tastes and marketing.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good concept, and I did learn some things, but the format of the book really undermined it in the end. I think it would have been better to do a chronological history of pasta instead of focusing each chapter on a different dish, which meant for jumping backwards and forwards in time and a lot of repetition, since obviously the origins of pasta as a concept were much the same for many. Also, just so much extraneous detail and entire recipes quoted when a simple sentence explaining the small differences would have been less exhausting. I finished it, but it was definitely a slog at times. It did make me hungry, though.

[Vera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sehr coole Idee, ein Buch über die wandelhafte Geschichte von Pasta-Gerichten als Statement gegen engstirnigen Gastropurismus!
Für den durchschnittlichen Leser allerdings ein bisschen zu detailliert. Es sind quasi wissenschaftliche Aufsätze. Liest sich sehr langsam, eine eher anstrengende Lektüre. Eine stichpunktartige Zusammenfassung der interessantesten Take-aways am Ende des Kapitels hätte mir genützt. Habe irgendwann angefangen selbst mitzuschreiben, weil ich mir sonst nichts merken konnte.

[Lucia Palomba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro davvero interessante, soprattutto per gli amanti della gastronomia!
Un testo che non può mancare nelle nostre librerie, così come nelle nostre cucine.
La grande ricerca bibliografica aiuta a comprendere la storia dei piatti italiani più famosi, facendoci capire perché nel mondo esistano piatti così diversi da quelli che difendiamo a spada tratta.
Se vi dicessi che la pasta Alfredo esiste, e che nella carbonara inizialmente c’era la panna, ci credereste?
Ciò che mangiamo oggi è frutto di una lenta e continua evoluzione, com’è naturale che sia!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grappig boek om te lezen terwijl ik ook met m'n kookcursus bezig was en leuk om zo eens met wat pasta-gerelateerde feitjes te kunnen strooien. Zo aten Italianen vroeger ook doorgekookte pasta ipv het al dente te bereiden, werd room wel degelijk gebruikt in de carbonara en zo nog wat dingen die voor Italianen nu vloeken in de chiesa zouden zijn. Het boek is niet héél vlot geschreven en je moet wel erg in culinaire geschiedenis geïnteresseerd zijn om de soms erg lange opsommingen aan oude recepten echt te kunnen waarderen. Maar al met al een vrij aardig boek.

[Eric Rietveld · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely devoured this. Cesari weaves a fascinating tale through the twists and turns that make up some of the most iconic Italian pasta dishes, and each story contains surprise after surprise. History and food, what more is there to say other than that I look forward to taking inspiration from some of the historical—if not currently canon—versions of these dishes. Perhaps a dinner party of heretical yet historical pasta dishes?

[Terry94705 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up on a whim and really enjoyed it. It’s a history, not a cookbook, but I found myself wondering about many of the ur-recipes and their use of nutmeg, cinnamon and spices not found in modern sauces. I may try some 16th and 17th century recipes— although these older recipes are pretty sketchy on details (quantities, prep, cooking times). But I guess that leaves more room for creativity.

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Italians are quite touchy when it comes to Italian cooking and those that are considered the traditional dishes.
This book does an excellent job in rewriting the stories and telling how many so called tradition are very recent.
That said I'm from north West and we usually eat rice :) or agnolotti
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

[Manuele Gazzardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anche solo per il neologismo "gastropurista" meriterebbe 10 stelle (io conierei quello di "gastrortodosso", come se ci fosse la Santa Inquisizione a controllare il rispetto delle regole della "vera" cucina nazionale)! Bellissimo ed accurato trattato sulle icone della cucina italiana!