Back in the pre-digital decades of the 20th century, there was nothing more delightful, in the view of my brother Hal and myself, than dining on the wooden coffee table in front of our Zenith television. Most enjoyable were Saturday mornings, when we’d watch hours of Warner Brothers cartoons on Channel 56, WLVI, slowly eating bowls of Cocoa Puffs and Apple Jacks and later, Quisp and Quake.
TV dinners were invented by the Swanson company in 1953, but neither of us was fond of the segmented aluminum tray with nuggets, peas and cubed carrots, and a grainy dollop of mashed potatoes. And our mom soon realized that “macaroni and butter” would suit us just fine.
“Macaroni.” There’s a word that’s gone by the wayside — and the macaroni at our house was elbows or “pipes.” In our house, “egg noodles” was angel-hair pasta and spaghetti was, of course, actual spaghetti. We were such sensitive eaters that we didn’t even like cheese on our macaroni, and my brother was known to reject his dinner if it had “too much butter.” Our generation grew up in an era when “the clean plate club” was an expectation of certain adults who presided at the dinner table. Food aversions were not acknowledged, let alone tolerated. I spent plenty of meals surreptitiously transferring carrot discs or any kind of bean into a napkin in my lap
Somewhere along the way, my brother’s loathing of red sauce lessen
ed. And then, our pantry shelves held cans of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee when they were on sale. I never had a taste for canned macaroni, although the jingle: “What do kids say when they want to eat soon? / Uh-oh / Spaghettios” was fun to sing.
Ancient noodle history
If your family comes from China, 200 grandmothers ago, someone was making your 199th grandmother a bowl of noodles. Back in 2005, archaeologists found an earthenware container with noodles dating back some 4000 years. According to an article in Nature magazine, about the dig site of Lajia in northwestern China, scientists “analyzed a prehistoric sample of noodles contained in a well preserved, sealed earthenware bowl discovered in the Late Neolithic.
“We identify millet as the source of the abundant seed-husk phytoliths and starch grains present in the vessel. This shows that the conversion of ground millet flour into dough that could be repeatedly stretched into long, thin strands for the preparation of boiled noodles was already established in this region 4,000 years ago.”
In short — we all can thank the ancient cooks of China for a food that truly spread across the globe.
The past of pasta
I was amazed to discover that the Greek God Hephaestus (Roman version, Vulcan) is associated with pasta! Apparently, the little lame blacksmith hammered out strings of semolina on his anvil — which makes for a comical image. I would have guessed Demeter (Roman version, Ceres), Goddess of the hearth and harvest as the ruling deity, as she is always pictured with grain.
By the second century, Galen, the Greek-speaking physician, wrote about “itrion,” (or the Latin “itria”). According to Silvano Serventi and Francoise Sabban in their ground-breaking book “Pasta — The Story of a Universal Food,” published in 2000, “in the works of Galen; it generically indicates all homogeneous compounds made up of flour and water.”
And yes, this means that intrepid world traveler Marco Polo did not bring pasta to the Mediterranean world in the 13th century. Because pasta was already there!
Mange! Mange!
More recently, spaghetti gained ground in the Bohemian world of downtown New York, when various Italian restaurants opened in Little Italy and Greenwich Village in the early 1900s. In 1906, Marcello Raffetto opened M. Raffetto @ Bros. In those years, the shop created three varieties of pasta: egg noodles, meat and spinach ravioli (in the Genoa style) and later, cheese ravioli (in the Naples style).
In a world before universal refrigeration, when everyone had — literally — an ice box which was filled with a block of ice, dry egg noodles were an immediate hit for the working class. Here was a nourishing and delicious food that could be cooked when needed. In 1916, the Raffetto family bought a pasta rolling machine (according to the company website, a machine still in use today), and eventually phased out dry noodles in favor of fresh.
Around the world with noodles
We have much to thank the Japanese for: and Cup Noodle will head the list for many folks. Can you believe this all-in-one creation dates back to the 1970 Osaka World’s Fair? Designer Otaka Takeshi fancied up a styrofoam cup with snazzy type, and the manufacturer added a new gastronomic innovation: freeze-dried ramen noodles.
The convenience factor meant that one could eat these noodles while sitting outside, or even while walking. The company included a small plastic fork — because, let’s face it, even the most skilled consumer would be hard-pressed to walk and maneuver noodles with chopsticks. At that World’s Fair more than 20,000 Cup Noodle units were sold — and at this point that number probably exceeds those of stars in the known galaxies.
Patti Vacca Martin of Fitchburg, an acclaimed local baker with deep Italian roots notes: “Pasta has always been the center of every traditional Italian family Sunday dinner for centuries. It’s the same thing in Italy, pasta there is served at every meal, every day! People didn’t have a lot of money and making homemade pasta is inexpensive — flour, water, very few ingredients.”
Patti notes that “years ago, pasta was always served alone, no meatballs or sausages. Those followed the pasta dishes. We (the younger generation) started serving everything together.” She fondly reminisces that in her family, “the elders always sat at the table all day on Sundays and Holidays.”
A good dish using pasta or noodles that one turns to, again and again, should be tasty, and easy-going. Recently, our family had this delicious dish, and it’s quick and fast.
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Peggy’s Chinese Noodles
Serves at least 6
INGREDIENTS:
1 lb fresh chinese noodles egg or plain
3 scallions minced
2 cloves garlic minced
3 tablespoons Tamari
2 tablespoons sesame oil (and a touch more)
1 tsp. hot oil
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
1/3 cup toasted sesame seeds
DIRECTIONS:
Cut noodles into thirds, cook in boiling water for three minutes, drain and toss with a bit of sesame oil. Mix together remaining ingredients, add to noodles and toss well. Serve room temperature or cold.
Notes: This recipe can be doubled. Peggy Wegman was the late neighbor of our wonderful in-laws who explained: “She was the most warm, family-oriented neighbor, and a great cook.”
Ramped-up Ramen
Serves 2
INGREDIENTS:
1 supermarket package of basic Ramen noodles
Fish sauce, to taste
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Cilantro
Scallions
DIRECTIONS:
Follow the directions on the package. We don’t use all the spice packets, which are very salty. Instead add those extras and any left-over veggies, meat, or seasoned scrambled egg.
Sally Cragin would love to read your family recipes and stories. Write to: sallycragin@gmail.com
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