Once upon a time, eggs laid deep into the oceans and were transparent
because they really did not have many predators.
But as time went on the shells became opaque and eggs eventually made it to land where there were no chickens to be found yet!
Featured image courtesy of http://www.fantom-xp.com
Three brands worth mentioning are De Cecco, Ronzoni and Barilla.
De Cecco is the king of pasta which defines all else as a noodle. It is top of the line and widely preferred by chefs because it retains its ‘al dente’ firmness after removing from the fire.
Ronzoni is an excellent pasta from back east USA. It also retains its hardness and it is noticeably thicker.
Barilla being good quality pasta, is a little shy in retaining its ‘al dente’ properties and might be appealing to those who like their pasta a bit softer than al dente. Take Barilla off the fire al dente and it will keep on softening a little more, yet taste better than most other brands.
‘Pasta al dente’ in this case means semi hard.
Italians refer to pasta as ‘pastasciutta’, dry pasta, almost invariably served at lunch in numerous ways as a first course.
For the Italian dinner, pasta may also be the first course but served in soups such as tortellini in chicken broth, minestrone (big…heavier content soup), minestrina (little…light in content soup).
Pastina (tiny pasta) such as Stelline and Acini di Pepe are wonderful for delicate soups.
Pastina in chicken broth, is Dottor Mamma’s No. 1 prescription.
Tips:
Coffee in conjunction to India ink can produce lovely art works.
Make strong coffee and when cold, brush the coffee on bond paper, water color paper or Strathmore board and apply several layers to build the shade of brown you desire.
The look will be one of water colors and the beauty of the coffee verses other edible liquids such as juices and wines is that it will leave neither pulp nor residue on your canvas.
When using paper for art work it might be wise to obtain acid free paper or museum board. These will keep the paper white for years to come and while there are different kinds of papers, alkaline paper can last 1000 years.
The bamboo artwork shown was not done on acid free paper so yellowing is occurring, but in this case it works.
Would you not rather tell a friend that your painting was done with gourmet coffee rather than water colors?
Green coffee beans can be roasted to perfection with a pop corn popper. The picture shows a Toastmaster pop corn popper, model TPC2.
Two minutes after insertion, the coffee beans should start popping.
Six minutes from the start the raw beans should be a shiny and greasy brown perfection. The longer the roast, the darker the beans.
Tips:
Roast outdoors. The beans will make lots of smoke and the aroma should be shared with neighbors.
Careful, the beans could burn if left too long.
Who was responsible for the origins of pasta? Was it the Chinese, the Arabs or the Italians?
Marco Polo brought to Italy Chinese noodles in 1295 but historians agree that some kind of pasta was already present in the Italian peninsula long before this date.
Etruscan tomb paintings clearly depict utensils such as pastry boards, rolling pins and wheels that are remarkably similar to today’s utensils for making pasta.
The Romans made unleavened type of dough with flour and water which they fried, cut into strips and ate with some kind of sauce.
Marcus Gavius Apicius, a famous Roman gastronome from the 1st century A.D. described dishes in which pasta dough was layered with other ingredients and then baked. This might have been an early type of lasagna.
The island of Sicily was invaded by the Arabs in the 9th century and there is ample evidence that the Arabs brought with them a dried noodle-like product.
The beauty of this dry product meant that it could be kept fresh for days to come.
There is also evidence the Sicilians were the first to boil their pasta and by the 12th century were eating a long thin type of pasta like spaghetti.
Even today many Sicilian pasta recipes still include Arab gastronomic ingredients such as raisins and spices like cinnamon.
Across from Sicily on the main land, it was the Calabrians who mastered the art of giving pasta some of the shapes we know today.
In Italian cook books of the 13th century published before the return of Marco Polo from China there are many citations of recipes for making different pasta shapes, such as ravioli, vermicelli and tortellini.
So, pasta existed in Italy before Marco Polo and the pasta museum in Rome has plenty of etchings, paintings and writings to substantiate that.
The fertile lands around Naples proved to be ideal for growing durum wheat and the combination of sun and wind made it possible to dry the pasta easily. This contributed to the beginning of the commercial pasta industry.
By the end of the 18th century the consumption of pasta in Italy sky rocketed and maccheroni, spaghetti and tagliatelle, made of flour and water, were the first ones to commercially take off.
Pasta at the time was regarded as a food for the poor.
The southern weather of Italy was not only ideal to make the pasta but to also grow tomatoes.
Pasta al pomodoro was here to stay.
Italy offers over 350 different shapes of pasta. The shapes not only inspire presentation but offer a slightly different chewing experience and taste.
Eye openers:
Christopher Columbus brought the tomato to Spain from North America and rumors widely spread through Europe of tomatoes being poisonous.
It was not until many decades after the tomato was introduced to Italy that it became one of the main ingredients in the Italian diet.
Durum wheat is probably the most important as well as hardest type of wheat grown today. It dates back to 7,000 B.C. originating from central Europe and the Near East.
Durum in Latin means “hard”.
Semolina is the purified middlings of durum wheat (grano duro) and it used to make the better and harder quality pasta.
The word semolina derives from Italian semola which in turn derives from Latin simila and which means flour. Semolina from durum wheat has widely been used in India and Turkey forever but it is known by different names.
Al Dente means “to the tooth” and refers to pasta cooked semi hard to hard. This is the preferred way to do it.
Parmigiano Reggiano originates from the northern Emilia Romagna region, more accurately from the city of Parma, and is the classic choice of cheese sprinkled over pasta.
It will taste best when grated to a medium consistency, say neither too sandy nor shredded in long strands. The purchased parmesan from Kraft is too sandy, feels gritty in the throat and absorbs the sauce too much. Other pre grated cheeses might be shredded in strands way too long unbalancing the delicate combined ratio of cheese to sauce.
For best consistency, the best way to informally sprinkle the cheese is with the fingers.
For formal situations the spoon aided by the tapping of the index finger is also an elegant classic.
Confucius would have said:
• A perfect and balanced pasta bite is the proportional ratio of cheese, pasta and sauce!
• Pasta and Parmiggiano Reggiano are one of the best marriages ever.
