Recently, I made Aglio e Olio for my family, including my 18-month-old grandson. Have you ever seen a toddler eat spaghetti? He sat in his high chair with a large pile of noodles in the tray in front of him. He would grab handfuls of the stuff and shove them into his mouth. He was innocently enjoying his food with no concern for proper manners. He was happy. My medigahn wife, however, was not. The ensuing discussion launched a review of all things pasta. Lectures on Italian culture are provided with the meal in our home at no additional cost.
We began with the myth that Marco Polo brought spaghetti back from China. While China certainly did have pasta when Marco Polo visited, it was more of a case where two cultures solved the same problem independently but similarly. Whenever I get into this debate, I simply insist that Marco Polo introduced the Chinese to chopsticks. Of course, I have no proof. But then again, neither do they. There is, however, a good deal of evidence that pasta existed in many different forms long before Marco Polo. Its known history goes back as far as the Etruscans and Greeks. We also know that the Romans cut pasta noodles into broad strips, similar to a lasagna. Dried pasta, the type with which most are familiar, was brought to Italy via Sicily from North Africa during the Muslim invasion in the early ninth century. Marco Polo returned from China in 1295. By that time, Palermo had a thriving dried pasta industry that exported its products across Europe and the Mediterranean.
After thousands of years of history, pasta had become so ingrained in Italian cuisine that New York City’s Italian neighborhoods teemed with pasta shops during the Italian diaspora. Unfortunately, hygiene was not a priority in the early decades of the 20th century. The conditions under which these shops operated were far worse than those found in Italy. The shop would be in the front room of a storefront apartment, with the family living in the middle and back rooms. At night, the rooms where the pasta was made became living areas for the family or any tenants they might have. To dry the noodles, they would hang them in the open air of doorways and windows, subject to any insects or debris that happened to be in the air, such as dirt and dust kicked up from the street.
Today, spaghetti is such a staple of the American diet that it is hard to imagine a time when it wasn’t on every menu. In the early 1920s, people flocked to Il Giardino d’Italia (The Garden of Italy) for exotic Italian food. People frequently asked the chef, Ettore Boiardi, for jars of his sauce to take home. Sensing an opportunity, Ettore and his brother Mario branched out to provide authentic Italian flavors to a broader audience. They began to label their products with the phonetic spelling of their name, “Boyardee.” With that, yet another Italian made an indelible mark on American culture.
In the early days, there was no debate on the proper spaghetti etiquette. Today, some say true Italians twirl their pasta with just a fork, while others use a spoon to assist. Of course, according to some, only a barbarian would use a knife to cut the spaghetti. Back in the old days, though, things were much more straightforward. One ate spaghetti with their hands, like my grandson. You just grabbed the pasta, tipped back your head, and let the whole thing slide down your throat. As I mentioned above, hygiene was not a big issue back then.
The historical significance aside, mothers across America shared my wife’s perspective on what was proper. Chef Boyardee, recognizing these concerns, introduced Mini Bites, which came in the shape of O’s or the alphabet, making it easier for kids to eat. Not to be outdone, in 1965, the Campbell Soup Company introduced Speghettios. With these innovations, little tykes who have yet to master the use of a fork could scoop up their pasta with a spoon.
From Etruscans to the Chinese to the Arabs to the Italians to the Americans, spaghetti is a significant part of humanity’s culinary history.
