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The Geography of Italian Pasta

The Geography of Italian Pasta

The Geography of Italian

David Alexander University of Massachusetts, Amherst Pasta is as much an institution as a in , where it has made a significant contribution to national culture. Its historical geography is one of strong regional variations based on climate, social factors, and diffusion patterns. These are considered herein; a taxonomy of pasta types is presented and illustrated in a series of maps that show regional variations. The classification scheme divides pasta into eight classes based on morphology and, where appropriate, filling. These include the and tubular families, pasta shells, ribbon forms, short pasta, very small or “micro- pasta” types, the family of filled pasta, and the family, which includes . Three patterns of dif- fusion of pasta types are identified: by sea, usually from the Mezzogiorno and , locally through adjacent , and outwards from the main centers of adoption. Many dry pasta forms are native to the south and center of Italy, while filled pasta of the ravioli family predominates north of the Apennines. Changes in the geography of pasta are re- viewed and analyzed in terms of the modern duality of culture and commercialism. Key Words: pasta, Italy, cultural geography, regional geography.

Meglio ch’a panza schiatta ca ’a roba resta. peasant’s meal of a rustic (pultes) Better that the belly burst than food be left on that contained thick strips of dried laganæ. But the table. Apicius, in De Re Coquinaria, gave careful in- —Neapolitan proverb structions on the preparation of moist laganæ and therein lies the distinction between fresh Introduction: A Brief Historical pasta, made with eggs and flour, which became Geography of Pasta a rich person’s dish, and dried pasta, without eggs, which was the food of the common man egend has it that when returned (Milioni 1998). L to from in 1298 he brought The rise of pasta was a predictable develop- with him the recipe for flour-based noo- ment. In 70 B.C. production in Sicily dles that were to be cooked in boiling and reached 250 million kilograms and importation served with a condiment of savory . But of that grain to by sea from all sources there is no clear evidence that pasta diffused exceeded 400 million kilograms (Milioni 1998). across Italy from Venice (for locations of re- Yet, despite its extended storage capacity, wheat gions and places see Fig. 1): indeed, it may have grain was liable to be infested by fungi, molds, diffused northwards from Sicily. Other sources and parasites. For this reason, in A.D. 62 Nero (Marinetti 1930, cited in David 1963) attribute was forced to decree that all the stocks of the it to Teodoric of , of the Os- Roman granaries be thrown into the River trogoths (circa A.D. 523), and still others to the . The tradition of mixing wheat with Etruscans. In fact, frescoes of the fourth cen- water and drying the resulting dough may tury B.C. in the Etruscan Tomba dei Rilievi near therefore have arisen as a means of prolonging show the basic implements and in- the storage life of wheat and increasing its ease gredients of pasta-making. Moreover, paint- of transportation: it arrived in Rome and Na- ings of banquets show the revelers apparently ples already in this form and this gradually en- eating a form of lasagna (definitions of types of couraged these centers to start their own pro- pasta are given in Table 1). duction of pasta (Milioni 1998). According to Anderson (1994, 75), the Ro- On the other hand, the Arab geographer Al- mans did not continue this tradition, but Plot- Adrisi wrote that the art of making spaghetti, kin (1985, 100) noted that the ancestor of lasa- or the thinner , reached Sicily with gne, laganæ, were popular in ancient times. In the North African caravans in about A.D. 1100. his Satiræ (Book 1, VI), described the On that island they found the essential requi-

Professional Geographer, 52(3) 2000, pages 553–566 © Copyright 2000 by Association of American Geographers. Initial submission, February 1996; revised submissions, December 1997, December 1998; final acceptance, January 1999. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, and 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF, UK.

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Figure 1: Location maps: (a) ; (b) cities, towns and other places mentioned in the text. sites: hard-grain wheat, sweet water, people who did nothing but make and abundant sun and wind to dry the rolled- and ravioli and cook them in capon broth” out product (Anon. 1992). Indeed, it is sug- (Anderson 1994, 74). gested that the word “maccheroni” is derived Pasta’s great companion, the (derived from the Sicilian maccarruni meaning “made from its tropical ancestor Lycopersicon esculen- into a dough by force” (Anon. 1992). In 1279 tum), was brought to Italy by the Spaniards and macharonis (sic) were recorded in a shipment appears to have been grown in in the from Sicily to . The Genoese, who were 1560s and the area from 1596, though it indefatigable traders, probably transported it was initially used more as an ornamental plant, around the peninsula and its use may have with high curiosity value, than as a source of spread inland from the main ports. food. Pasta did not attain its central importance According to Milioni (1998), pasta did not in the Neapolitan diet until the seventeenth begin to evolve beyond vermicelli, gnocchi, century, and did not become and until the 1300s. Yet documents of fashionable for another hundred years (Milioni the fifteenth century, such as Father Barto- 1998). The practice began in the western Sicil- lomeo Secchi’s De Honesta Voluptate, gave reci- ian port of , which may indicate that the pes for forms that were either long or hollow. idea was introduced from the western Mediter- Thus, there is no doubt that pasta was well es- ranean. In any case, it was well-established in tablished in Italy by the late and Naples by the time that Vincenzo Corrado had begun to diversify. Giovanni Boccaccio (1734–1836) wrote his compendium of recipes (1313–1375) liked to eat it in a milk-based entitled Il Cuoco Galante (“The Gallant Cook”), sauce (David 1963, 95) and he wrote in the though a recipe for vermicelli with tomato Decameron of the imaginary land of Cockaigne sauce was not published until 1839, in the where “there was a whole mountain of grated Cucina Casareccia in Dialetto Napoletano (“Home Parmesan and on top were standing Cooking in Neapolitan Dialect”), a solidly pa-

Geography of Italian Pasta 555 rochial work written by Ippolito Cavalcanti, whole life.” Until very recently, the most per- Duke of Buonvicino (1787–1860). vasive form of such conservatism was that When he liberated Naples in 1860, which related to food and dialect (hence the Garibaldi swore that maccheroni would be the rich variety of local names for common species force that united Italy. But instead of this ge- of pasta). Change has come only with the tech- neric form of pasta secca (dried pasta), the unify- nologies of the second half of the 20th century: ing force was to be the more specific form, spa- by promoting standardized speech, television ghetti, which was perhaps the most amenable has almost eliminated dialect, while the mech- to mass production. When this took over at the anization of food production has made local end of the nineteenth century, Gragnano, near delicacies universal, if often debased, fare. Naples, was established as the center of the na- The following account offers a brief review scent “pasta revolution,” in which grain from of the literature on regional cultures of food. the Mezzogiorno (the south of Italy) was pro- Next, it explores the regional geography of cui- cessed so that it could be eaten with a sauce sine with specific reference to pasta in Italy. In made from that most southern of , order to make regional variations interpret- the plum-shaped San Marzano tomato. The able, a classification scheme is developed for historic photographs of the Alinari brothers the many types of pasta that can be identified. show strips of maccheroni being dried in the This is applied in such a way as to highlight open air on long, bamboo poles outside a pasta geographical variations throughout the penin- factory in on the Bay of Na- sula in gastronomy and its cultural and histori- ples, circa 1890 (Archivi Alinari 1984). cal underpinnings. The last section assesses the Hence, like , which developed in impact on gastronomic traditions of modern Minor and the Middle East as much as it did in changes in society and economy. Naples, pasta may have evolved in several countries independently, though it quickly es- The Literature on the Regional tablished its centers of diffusion. Both Culture of Food served the vital and universal purpose of sup- pressing the appetite. This freed up the rich There is now a considerable literature on the man’s palate so that he could concentrate on geography, sociology, anthropology, and eth- the pleasures of more delicate foods. Later, nology of food (Murcott 1988; Whit 1995; when living standards rose in the Industrial Cook and Crang 1996). It covers a very wide Revolution, it would save the poor man from brief that includes famine and nutrition, - gnawing pangs of hunger, but until then many cultural change, and gender issues (Murcott poor people could only afford and 1983). In social anthropology, structuralist flour, not wheat flour, and a views of food habits based on interpretations of sauce or stuffing was an almost unattainable symbolism and meanings have now been luxury (Kasper 1992, 72–73). But, though this largely superceded by materialist approaches simple food has since become ubiquitous, it is that highlight the practical aspects (Murcott geographically diverse enough to reflect the ex- 1988). Sociologists, however, have only re- traordinary variety of Italian culture itself. cently become interested in the culture of food Though Italy was finally unified in the (McIntosh 1996). Perhaps for this reason, so- 1860s, strong regional traditions continue to cial scientists have made little effort to study divide her. Like almost everything else Italian, the culinary history of southern European the forms and shapes of pasta have strictly local countries (Mennell et al. 1992). Hence, the origins (Hazelton 1978; Plotkin 1985). The myth of the diffusion of pasta overland from paradox of an old country but a young nation China in the high Middle Ages was perpetu- has been reinforced by centuries of campanil- ated by Goody (1982), Friedmann (1995), and ismo, adherence to one’s own village, whose Cook and Crang (1996). central point is the church campanile. Suspi- Sociologists view the culture of food in rela- cion of the exotic is encapsulated in the old say- tion to processes of differentiation and exclu- ing, still widely used, moglie e bue dai paesi tuoi, sion, as well as their opposites, assimilation and which freely translated means “get your oxen inclusion. The former allow groups of people and your wife from where you’ve lived your to maintain their ethnic identities, while the

556 Volume 52, Number 3, August 2000 latter result in the dilution of cultures. Pitfalls preferences has been common throughout his- are associated with both extremes, as complete tory, for commensalism is a fundamental social assimilation would mean the disappearance of a ritual that combines sociality and dining, which , while complete separation would ac- are two of the most powerful reinforcers of be- cord it ghetto status (McIntosh 1996). In this havioral patterns (Van den Berghe 1984). context, Van den Berghe (1984) argued that re- Moreover, in western European societies, food gionally distinctive food not only serves to in- has traditionally been subject to powerful eco- tegrate an ethnic group, but also helps to ex- nomic, social, and ecological constraints. Con- clude non-members. He regarded ethnicity as sumption has historically depended on a diver- primordial as well as situational, such that a dis- sified system of domestic production which tinctive cuisine reflects the ethnic group’s long supported cultural and social patterns of eating history of reciprocal relations in society. In spa- that were rigid enough to border on the coer- tial terms, Cook and Crang (1996) argued that cive (Fischler 1980). On the other hand, histor- distinctive styles in food can be considered in ically, both famine and plentiful harvests caused relation to their local setting, their “cultural food innovations to spread more quickly, the biographies” (in other words, their histories of former by force of desperation and the latter by diffusion), and their historical roots. increasing consumption (Wieglemann 1974). Besides ethnicity, social stratification can be Be that as it may, Italy has preserved its gas- a major differentiating factor in food cultures tronomic traditions better than many countries (Mennell et al. 1992, 20–27). McIntosh (1996) which are in the throes of a similar process of suggested that the emergence during history of modernization. The following section exam- food traits that were differentiated by social ines how that is so with respect to the language class (the “high” cuisine of the gentry and the of pasta, the variety of shapes and forms that it basic fare of peasants) has also helped to differ- takes, and the environment in which regional entiate societies regionally. Thus, culinary tra- variations evolved. ditions can be related to both ethnic grouping and the control and manipulation of class Elements of a Regional Geography structures. Moreover, Wieglemann (1974) of Pasta noted that exotic foods and the products of the rich person’s table have only recently diffused Language down the social scale. However, Belmonte Short of asking each household in Italy what (1989) demonstrated in his fieldwork that class the family tradition in pasta-making is, there is culture is not so relevant to the understanding no way to establish precise regional boundaries of food traditions where the lower classes have of each species of pasta. In , for exam- generally been able to eat well. ple, it is clear that one is being served an au- Modern world culinary traditions must be thentic local dish when it consists of the thick seen against the background of changes in agri- strips called , laced with an Emilian cultural production, marketing and commerce, ragù (ragôut). But further south in the social behaviors, and food preparation habits , the spaghetti-like strozzapreti become (Fischler 1980). This has led to the potential strangolapreti (see Fig. 2a) and, by the time one breakdown of regional traditions into some- reaches in , they have turned thing that is spatially much more amorphous into the ribbon-shaped strangozzi (Fig. 2d). (Bell and Valentine 1977). However, as both Traveling yet further south they undergo the Hägerstrand (1976) and Rogers (1983) noted, fairly slight modification to before adoption and diffusion processes involving disappearing altogether from the menu. To food are often slow. Moreover, according to confuse the issue further, gnocchi di patata are Wieglemann (1974), class structures, morals, sometimes also known as strozzapreti (Stefanile compatibility of diets, perceptions of what is 1979, 16). These terms, incidentally, come acceptable, costs, and availabilities all act as from the verbs strangolare (to strangle) and barriers to diffusion. In short, many people re- strozzare (to throttle), indicating a form of pasta main conservative in their attitudes to food and that is thick enough to pose problems for the prefer the familiar to the exotic. Indeed, Men- windpipe, if not also the digestion. Strozzapreti nell (1985) suggested that conservatism in food literally means “strangle the priests,” which is a

Geography of Italian Pasta 557 sort of reflection on the hearty appetite of the troops in the 1200s). Somewhere between the clergy, many of whom sport an exceedingly ro- hinterlands of Naples and the compro- bust physique. It is also, perhaps, the echo of a mise, cavatiedde, is heard (see Fig. 2, Class 3; subtle cry for independence: northern Marche Lombardi and Mastropaolo 1986). and southern were for many years Food is a serious matter in Italy. Social eating dominated by the temporal power of the Pa- is one of the bases of Italian culture and is the pacy, which by all accounts ruled with a of subject of much dedicated research and debate iron (Norwich 1982). Thus pasta “wittily ex- (for example, see Alessi 1994). The canons of pressed anticlerical sentiments without a word Italian cookery have been laid down in such being spoken” (Kasper 1992, 72). classic works as Boni’s Il talismano della fe- The of the north and center of Italy licità (“The Talisman of Happiness,” Boni exhibit a rich catalog of local variations. Many a 1994), Il cucchiaio d’argento (“The Silver dinner table has resounded to the inflamed pas- Spoon,” Anon. 1994) and Pellegrino Artusi’s sions of those who would distinguish the famous L’arte di mangiar bene (“The Art of Eat- Marchean from the Emilian lasagne ing Well”). Artusi (1897, 111th ed. 1991) gave (Fig. 2, Class 4) and those who would have it precise dimensions for key types of pasta: for that they are the same thing. The origin of tor- instance, diameters of 6.5 cm for cappelletti (p. telli di zucca, sacks of pasta stuffed with pump- 43) and 3.7 cm for (), both to kin, is still regularly disputed by Mantovani, be cooked in broth; 2.0 cm for cannelli (p. 52) Modenesi, and Reggiani of -Romagna and 8.2 cm for crescioni () (p. 52). More- Region (Fig. 2, Class 7), and the purist might over, the Accademia Italiana della Cucina has note a slight difference in the way the pumpkin defined the correct width of a tagliatella as 8 mixture is spiced (with ginger, nutmeg, or mar- mm (1/12,270th the height of the Torre degli malade) between each of these cities. But when Asinelli in ) and its proper thickness as one retreats into the 0.6 mm. An official reference tagliatella, cast in south of Bologna, which were once great bas- solid gold, reposes in the city hall at Bologna tions of poverty, the filling dwindles to an aus- (Kasper 1992, 78–79). tere purée of . Furthermore, as if to as- sert some form of independence, the small Environment sachets of anolini are circular in and However it may have been introduced into It- semi-circular in (washed down, perhaps, aly, there is a fair element of geographical de- with a glass of an unfiltered red from terminism about where pasta is produced. It is northern Romagna called Clinton after the North no accident that the best pasta comes from the American grapes from which it is pressed). areas of richest agriculture, where climate is moderately dry (500–800 mm of precipitation Shape per year) and soils are marly loams or fertile al- It is not necessary for the type of pasta to change luvia. A distinction can be drawn between the for it to be imbued with regional distinctive- south—the rolling plains of the Apulian ness, for different strains of dialect readily Tavoliere and interior Sicily—and north—the achieve that. Consider the hollow pasta known flat, misty floodplains of the , the lower as . This eminently southern variety is Valley. In the Mezzogiorno semolina made by rolling the dough into round strips wheat produces a hard, brittle yellow pasta that with the diameter of a pencil. These are then is high in and low in and desic- cut into pieces 4–5 cm long and gently pressed cates well in the summer . Durum with the balls of the fingers, so that they form wheat will not thrive in the Padania Plain and open, ribbed “shells.” The Spanish inflection in hence fresh pasta, often with the addition of dialects that have a Neapolitan root transforms eggs, is the speciality of Emilia-Romagna (Pa- the name into cavatielle, while the more clipped glia 1959). There it is highly prized: the most nasal sound of the interior near the isoglossa authentic Bolognese tortellini are also known with Apulian dialect renders it cavatedde (the as umbellichi sacri, sacred navels. second “e” having a Germanic rather than Local differences apart, there have long been pronunciation, perhaps a reflection of gastronomic connections between north and the presence of Frederick II and his Swabian south. For example, the first pasta factory in

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ab

cd

Bologna was inaugurated on 20 November gastronomic capital of the peninsula (Kasper 1586. Initially, it served to introduce the vermi- 1992, 73). By the time of , the famous celli, lasagne, and maccheroni of Rome, Na- duality had appeared between the baked pasta ples, and Venice to what would become the of and that of Emilia and Romagna.

Geography of Italian Pasta 559

ef

g

Figure 2: Some regional origins of types of pasta in Italy, using the classification listed in Table 1: (a) Class 1. The spaghetti family; (b) Class 2. The tubular family; (c) Class 3. The shell family; (d) Class 4. The ribbon family; (e) Class 5. The short pasta family; (f) Class 7. The ravioli (filled pasta) family; (g) Class 8. The dumpling (pseudo-pasta) family. Spatial differentiation of Class 6, the micropasta family, is too slight to warrant a map.

Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, is thought to toes and in favor of a rich garnishing of have introduced the baked lasagne to Emilia ragú, with that robust meaty perfume that so from Naples (Stefanile and Oliviero 1993). tantalizingly pervades the foyers of northern The dish soon lost the southern blush of toma- opera houses during the interval.

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Taxonomy and Regionalization Table 1 A Morphological Classification of Italian Pasta Pasta is defined as a simple dough of durum semola wheat and water, or soft grain wheat, (1) The spaghetti family: eggs, and water, that usually receives its pri- In decreasing order of thickness: thick as a pencil, southern , mary cooking by being boiled in salty water. It northern may be cooked fresh (pasta fresca) or allowed to strozzapreti thick as a pencil, more irregular than dry for the purposes of conservation (pasta pici, Marche strangolapreti alternative name for strozzapreti, secca). In the Mezzogiorno it is often given the Marche and Umbria generic name maccaroni (or maccheroni), which spaghetti, Lazio and Puglia according to Anderson (1994, 75) comes from lingue di passero ”sparrows’ tongues,” slightly thicker than , the dialect verb maccare, to squash or flatten linguine flattened large diameter spaghetti, (i.e., the dough), though according to Plotkin Campania (1985, 101) it is instead a Venetian term for perciatelli thick spaghetti, gnocchi (). spaghetti all Italy (bigoi) (“worms”) long, hand-made spaghetti, Anderson (1994, 72–73) proposed a classifi- and cation of pasta secca into long (e.g., spaghetti), cazzarieglie match-like, short (e.g., ) or miniscule (), solid tonnellini match-like, Romagna spaghettini thin spaghetti, all Italy or hollow (the former rounded or flat and the vermicelli very thin spaghetti, Naples (Campania), latter empty or stuffed), and with a smooth or Sicily ribbed texture. It can be served drained as pasta extremely thin spaghetti, all Italy fedelini (fidelini ) (from fedele, faithful, or filo, thread or asciutta or in a broth (in brodo). However, he did wire) spaghetti-like strands as thin as not develop these ideas into a full-scale classifi- capellini, southern Italy cation of regional types. Other authors (e.g., capelli di angelo ”angel’s hair” (or capalvenere, “hair of Venus”), the thinnest of all pasta, Plotkin 1985) have been content to list the southern Italy names and forms of pasta without classifying them. (2) The tubular family: In decreasing order of diameter: very wide, Campania Methodology cannelli 2 cm wide, Campania and all-Italy crosetti cannelloni made with semolina, Sicily As far as I am aware, no attempt has been made wide, short and ribbed, central and to classify types of Italian pasta comprehen- southern Italy sively and investigate their geographical ori- similar to rigatoni, but with spiral ribbing, all Italy gins since the work of Vincenzo Agnoletti in as for rigatoni, southern Italy 1832, who listed 129 types. Discussions of pasta zitoni very long ziti for baked pasta dishes, in the books by Artusi (1991) and Plotkin southern Italy candele slightly larger zitoni, southern Italy (1985) are incomplete. I therefore compiled penne liscie smooth, cross-cut tubes, all Italy the classification shown in Table 1 on the basis penne rigate ribbed, cross-cut tubes, all Italy of surveys of gastronomic and other literature pennette smaller in diameter than penne, all Italy in Italian and English, and in merit of 25 years perciatelli a form of penne or ziti, southern Italy mostaccioli local name for penne, Umbria of travel, during which I visited all 103 prov- macaroni thin tubes, Sicily and the Veneto inces of Italy and made notes on local culture, maccheroni thin tubes, central and southern Italy dialect, and traditions, dined in restaurants and (the word can also be used to refer to all forms of long, hollow ) private homes, and observed the making and medium-sized maccheroni of varied selling of pasta. length, all Italy Taxonomy was a necessary prelude to exam- gomiti (“elbows”) all Italy frizzule maccheroni, ining the regional variations. The first task was maccheroncini little tubes, Emilia-Romagna and to list all types of pasta that could be discov- elsewhere ered. These amounted to 160, though it is gramigna (“little weeds”) very slender tubes of probable that others exist and that some names pasta, Emilia-Romagna have disappeared over time (indeed some (3) The shell family: sources refer to more than 300 distinctive chiocciole shells, all Italy types). I excluded names that had a purely com- shells, all Italy mercial resonance and no apparent local or na- conchiglioni large shells, southern Italy (Continued) Geography of Italian Pasta 561

Table 1 A Morphological Classification of Table 1 A Morphological Classification of Italian Pasta (Continued) Italian Pasta (Continued)

manicotti large shells, Naples (Campania) thin strips of pasta with one cavatelli made with the imprint of the tips of the curled edge, southern Italy fingers, southern Italy malfadine thin strips of pasta with two curled ”little ears,” edges, southern Italy recchetielle local name for orecchiette, (Molise) (5) The short pasta family: rechielle local name for orecchiette, Naples cannolicchi short pasta, north , (Campania) Alto- rechietelle local name for orecchiette, Naples quadrucci (or quadretti ) squares of egg pasta, (Campania) Emilia-Romagna ”figures-of-eight” with the form of a maltagliati rolled up triangles of egg pasta, Emilia- coin once used in the Republic of Romagna Genoa, tondarelli finely sliced tiny disks of egg pasta, (4) The ribbon family: pantacce diamond-shaped, pasta alla chitarra pasta dough put through a mandoline, pantaccelle diamond-shaped, northeast Italy Abruzzo tacconi diamonds as big as palm of hand, crioli local name for pasta alla chitarra, Molise Abruzzo and Molise 1 /2-cm wide strips, central Italy (Umbria, pacche see tacconi, Molise Lazio, Abruzzo, Molise) paccozze see tacconi, Molise sagne fettuccine 5 cm long, Molise taccozzelle small diamonds, Molise bavette a form of fettuccine, Liguria (see no. 1, butterfly or bow-tie shape, all Italy above) farfalline small farfalle (or farfallette), all Italy fettuccine made with , (farfalloni, large farfalle) Val d’ stricchetti butterflies or bow-ties of egg pasta, strangozzi ribbon-shaped fettuccine, Spoleto Emilia-Romagna (Umbria) stricchettoni a larger form of stricchetti, Romagna stringozzi local name for strangozzi, parts of stringhetti stricchetti cut diagonally before being Umbria pinched at the center, central Romagna paglia e fieno ” and grass,” egg and spinach fettuccine, Tuscan-Bolognese spirals, southern Italy Apennines, Liguria eliche larger spirals, Campania turciniateddi fusilli (fusiddi ) of Sicily ribbons of egg pasta (from tagliare, to ricci di donna cut), Emilia, Liguria incannulate Apulia tagliarielle local name for tagliatelle, Molise spiral-shaped short pasta, Liguria taglioline egg pasta, thinner ribbons than double twists of pasta, Campania tagliatelle, Emilia-Romagna roselline pasta roses, Romagna nastroni large tagliatelle, , Tuscany frascatielle irregular shapes, Molise strette local name for , Bologna (Romagna) (6) The micropasta family: ribbon-shaped pasta similar to linge di passero and bavette, Liguria pastina tiny shapes, all Italy tagliarine (taglierini ) thin strips, northeast Adriatic area malfattini grains of pasta, Emilia-Romagna tajarin taglerine of semini ”little ”(semi di melone, melon bassotti hair-thin taglierini of egg pasta, seeds; semi di cicoria, seeds), Romagna all Italy pasta pressed through the comb of a stellette ”little stars,” all Italy, also known as hemp loom, Castel Bolognese stelline (Romagna) ditali (“thimbles”) small, short tubes, also (smaller) and ditali rigati strisce strips of pasta, Tuscany (ribbed), southern Italy lagane 1 cm-wide strips, Basilicata cannulicchi Sicilian ditali 1 1 /2-cm wide irregular strips, Siena, lumachine curved ditali (southern Tuscany) margherite tiny “daisies,” all Italy lasagne 8–10 cm wide strips, Emilia-Romagna sorpresine ”little surprises,” all Italy (egg pasta), Campania, Calabria, small rings (anellini, tiny rings), all Italy Puglia pepe bucato tiny tubes with a thin hole in the middle, lasagne festonate lasagne with curled edges (also known all Italy as lasagne ricce, “curled lasagne,” or perline tiny shells, all Italy reginelle) quadrucci tiny squares, all Italy small lasagne lasagnole Tuscan form of lasagne, Florence (7) The ravioli (filled pasta) family: vincisgrassi a form of lasagne al forno, Marche “Sachet”: flat squares cut from a rolled-out round ravioli filled pasta “sachets,” Liguria, Lombardy, of dough, Emilia-Romagna (originally from Genoa) (Continued) (Continued) 562 Volume 52, Number 3, August 2000

Table 1 A Morphological Classification of Table 1 A Morphological Classification of Italian Pasta (Continued) Italian Pasta (Continued)

raviolini small ravioli, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia- (8) The dumpling (pseudo-pasta) family: Romagna gnocchi di patata bullet-sized potato pasta (also sometimes agnolotti small “sachets” of pasta larger than known as cicche, “sweetmeats”), ravioli, Val d’Aosta, Piedmont, Piedmont, Veneto, Rome northern Emilia gnocchetti di patata small gnocchi, Rome crespelle filled egg pasta, Molise (the name is gnocchetti sardi smaller gnocchi, more regular in form, also used for crépes in Florence) culingiones (or culurzones) ravioli with spinach and canèderli (knödel ) boiled dumpling the size of a gnocco, cheese filling, Sardinia Trentino bombe (archaic) ravioli stuffed with cheese, Bologna malloreddus flour and cheese gnocchi with , (Romagna) Sardinia (known in parts of the island bombolline (archaic) small “bombe,” Bologna (Romagna) as maccarrones caidos) cuzzetielle ravioli, Molise gnocchi di semolino small circles of semolina, Venezia- laianelle ravioli, Molise Giulia sciatt cheese-filled pasta, Valtellina pillas semolina gnocchi, Sardinia türteln ravioli filled with spinach, cabbage or gnocchi di small circles of cornmeal, Tuscany sauerkraut, ravioli verdi riccotta and spinach dumplings, Tuscany tortelli ravioli “sachets,” Emilia-Romagna gnocchi same as ravioli verdi, Tuscany tortelli d’erbette rectangular, stuffed with greens and tonnarelli pasta that is as thick as it is broad, northeast Italy tortelli di patata rectangular, stuffed with mashed schripellei fried dough crépes (known as schirpelle potato, Tuscan-Bolognese Apennines or schirpedde in Basilicata), southern tortelli di zucca large ravioli filled with pumpkin, Mantua Italy (Lombardy) large tortelli usually filled with cheese, Emilia-Romagna caramelle (or tortelli con la coda, “tortelli with tional cultural underpinnings. I also made a tails,” in dialect turtei cu la cua) tortelli with the ends twisted to look like distinction between slight local variations in wrapped candy, Emilia name, given in parenthesis in the table, and small variations in both name and substance, Circular: anolini di Parma small disks or half-moons (Parma) which justified a separate entry in the table: for (anolen) example, the casonzei of are not neces- anolini di Piacenza circular ravioli, Piacenza (Lombardy) sarily identical to the casumziei of the - (anvein) mites further north (Table 1 and Figure 2, anolini of Mantua crescioni circular tortelli filled with spinach, Emilia- Class 7), where local cheese may be used to fill Romagna these ravioli and pieces of speck may be marubei anolini stuffed with meat and added to the filling. cut with crimped edges (Piacenza) marubini anolini of The next step was to organize the list into a pansôti ”pot-bellies,” filled with spinach and series of categories based on shape and form. cheese, eastern Liguria Common usage defines long cylindrical shapes, panzarotti ”broken-bellies,” filled with cheese, Apulia whether solid or hollow, as “macaroni” while “lasagne” refers to all flattened pasta shapes, in- Semi-circular: cluding tagliatelle and fettuccine. However, a anolini di Parma semi-circular, folded ravioli, Parma (Emilia—see above) more sophisticated taxonomy is required. I be- casonsei crescentic, filled with cheese etc., gan with the more ubiquitous, “classic” forms and Bergamo in Lombardy of solid and hollow pasta secca, which I called casumziei casonsei (or casonziei ) of the Dolomites the “spaghetti” and “tubular” families, respec- Crimped and Tied: tively (see Table 1, Classes 1 and 2). I then cappellacci ”old hats,” stuffed with pumpkin, added the “shell family” (Class 3), which con- Emilia-Romagna sists of pasta whose origins lie in a simple pres- cappelletti di (sometimes known as orecchioni, “big Romagna ears”), hat-shape formed from a circle, sure of the thumb on a rolled out piece of Romagna (special versions exist in dough. This is followed by what I have termed , Forlì, and Ravenna) the “ribbon family” (Class 4), consisting of cappellini see cappelletti tortellini egg pasta, crimped, folded and filled, pasta that is first rolled flat and then cut into Bologna (Romagna) long strips of various sizes and forms. A variant strichetti local name for tortellini, of of this is the “short pasta family” (Class 5), in Bologna (Romagna) which the strips are no more than a few centi- (Continued) Geography of Italian Pasta 563 meters long and the scraps of pasta may be times past this form of pasta may have diffused twisted. I gave the name “micropasta family” into the from the port of Venice, (Class 6) to the tiny pieces of pasta secca of vari- though by the time it had reached Emilia the ous shapes that are usually served in broth. tubes had shrunk and become maccheroncini. Pasta fresca with a filling of cheese, meat, or Instead in Sicily they grew large and became vegetables I termed the “ravioli family” (Class crosetti, assuming the more common name of 7). Finally, there remained a heterogeneous cannelloni in Naples, which had long had cul- group of pasta types, such as gnocchi, which ex- tural ties with Sicily. ist at the margins of what can be classified as The shell family (Fig. 2, Class 3) is heavily pasta, and I termed these the “dumpling fam- localized in the Apennine south of the penin- ily,” or “pseudo-pasta” (Class 8). sula. Orecchiette probably diffused outward Though some of the types of pasta have no from Apulia, as they are still most closely asso- very clear regional or local origin, and hence ciated with that region, while cavatelli appear to can be described as “all-Italian,” many are na- have diffused southwards from Campania, the tive to particular places and areas. Given the region of Naples. The one anomaly is the oc- difficulty of plotting all of these on maps, espe- currence of a shell pasta in Genoa, an innova- cially where there is uncertainty about the re- tion which was probably brought northwards gional boundaries of their provenance, I plot- from the southern ports with which the Ge- ted them selectively with respect to the eight noese traded. But the shells of Genoa, corzetti, classes in order to illustrate the principal pat- have assumed a strong local pattern, as their terns of geographical variation and, where ap- form is based on a coin which once circulated propriate, the likely paths of diffusion. The lat- when that city was a maritime republic. ter must remain hypothetical, as few Ribbon pasta (Fig. 2, Class 4) is one of the will admit to having received a dearly-held lo- most diverse types with many regional varia- cal tradition from another place and few tions. The Campanian and Roman lasagne be- records exist from the distant past when the came sagne when they diffused south and east- main traditions were spread. ward into the Apennine hinterland, in parts of which they retained their ancient name of laga- Regional Variations and Spatial Patterns nae. Cut more finely and diffused northwards A number of spatial regularities can be - they became fettuccine, mingling with tagliatelle, served. To begin with, the spaghetti family which diffused outward from the main centers (Fig. 2, Class 1) is widely distributed through- of production of pasta fresca in the Val Padana. out peninsular Italy. Some types, such as buca- The adoption of tagliatelle by the people of the tini, have diffused without changing their northern Apennines saw them transformed name, or with minor changes, such as strozza- into paglia e fieno, “hay and straw,” by adding preti and its more southerly synonym, strango- spinach purée to half of the egg pasta so that lapreti, as noted above. Others are similar but the strips were green as well as golden yellow. have assumed different names in different Once established in the Po Valley, lasagne ap- places, such as vermicelli in Naples and fedelini pear to have diffused north-westward into in Sicily. Several regional varieties have ex- Piedmont Region, where they are known as panded their area of influence but not extended testaroli, southeastward into the Marche Re- beyond it, such as pici in southern Tuscany, big- gion, where they become vincisgrassi (“let the oli in the eastern Padania, and tonnellini in Ro- fat win!”) and southward into Tuscany, where magna (see Fig. 1 for locational information). they have assumed the name lasagnole. Tubular pasta (Fig. 2, Class 2) is also wide- Regional names for short pasta (Fig. 2, Class spread in origin and, like the spaghetti family, is 5) are notably absent from central Italy, though decidedly non-Alpine. It is probable that sea in the commercial age this type now thrives trade diffused the generic type maccheroni (or there. Spiral types assume several names in the macaroni) from Sicily to the principal ports of South: eliche and fusilli in Campania, the dialec- Italy and that is why the name is so widespread, tical variation fusiddi in Sicily, ricci di donna though in the southern region of Basilicata it is (“women’s curls”) in Calabria, and incannulate replaced by frizzule and in central Italy rigatoni in the heel of Italy. The direction of diffusion is become the dominant kind of maccheroni. In unknown and could have been either north- 564 Volume 52, Number 3, August 2000 ward or southward (it was certainly the latter in fillings. This undoubtably reflects both the in- the case of Ligurian trofie). Pasta squares (qua- ventiveness of local cooks and the desire to drucci) developed in the upper Val Padana, and have a distinctive gastronomy that one can be represent a variant on the theme of lasagne. An proud of. Indeed, the variations on a theme interesting correspondence exists between the that characterize types of filled pasta in the Po irregular forms known as maltagliate in Roma- Valley seem to indicate an intense local rivalry gna and frascatielle in Molise Region, several amounting to each city’s desire to claim the hundred kilometers further south. It is not type of pasta for its own. The other source of clear how this arose, though possibly either by variation is linguistic, in that dialect versions of coincidence or through the migration of the original names, or dialect words—in essence people from the south to the north. nicknames—that suggest the form of the pasta The micropasta family (Class 6 in Table 1) abound in the catalog of local variations. On a has not been plotted, as it shows little regional more extreme level local names reflect the Ger- variation. It is probable that most very small man influence in Alto Adige and the Latino- pasta is an artefact of mass production in mod- Spanish roots of the Sard language in Sardinia. ern age, before which it would have been cut In this way an imported food has gradually be- without particular reference to shape and come a local tradition many times over. form. With the exception of crespelle in the central- Present and Future Perspectives southern Apennines and culigiones in Sardinia, filled pasta (Fig. 2, Class 7) is a northern phe- The future of Italian pasta looks very different nomenon. Variations on a theme can be seen in from its past. In the first place, massive in- the types of agnolini, anolini, and agnolotti that creases in geographical connectivity have freed abound throughout the Po Valley and likewise it from its regional dependence. It is the victim, with the kinds of tortelli. In this respect, the dif- or beneficiary, depending on how one views it, ferences almost certainly reflect the desire of of what Thrift (1993, 97) calls “the new re- each city-region to have its own distinctive gional geography of mobility,” made up of “so- gastronomy, an extension of the rivalry that cieties of control in which ultra-rapid forms of existed when they were remarkably self- free-floating strategies of control modulate contained fiefdoms. The Alpine casonsei and people.” According to McIntosh (1996, 52) the türteln and the Apennine potato-filled tortelli di process began in the 1950s and 1960s when patata represent lateral diffusion with respect Italian was “discovered” by to the main Po Valley axis (i.e., north-south foreigners who had become disaffected with rather than northwest-southeast). In each of French cookery. Italians then forced the these cases the montane variety of filled pasta is under the impetus of increased mobility and stodgier than that of the lowlands, which is a national tourism. This led to a more general reflection of the harsher life of the mountains diffusion of knowledge, and the “discovery” has and the need for a filling meal in times of cold gone on apace in the backwaters of the Mezzo- weather. In this respect the last family, dump- giorno right up to present times. lings or pseudo-pasta (Fig. 2, Class 8), is also Mennell et al. (1992) attributed the impact of strongly related to the highlands—of interior new food technologies to three factors: the Sardinia, of the , and of the northern and trend towards increasing urbanization, which southern Apennines. Again it reflects the isolated populations from the land, the modern starchiness of the peasant diet, though the tra- reorganization of trade networks, and the in- dition of small gnocchetti in the sophisticated dustrialization of food production. As a result, trattorie of Rome is a curious exception to this the modern food industry is hyperspecialized: rule. rather than the traditional local sources, most In summary, there appear to be three pat- of what one eats now comes from elsewhere. terns of diffusion of pasta types: by sea, usually The anthropologist Fischler (1980) saw this, from the Mezzogiorno and Sicily, locally not as the perversion of nature by culture, but through adjacent regions, and outwards from as a breakdown in the “fit” between bi- centers of adoption. In many cases names ology and environment, which he meant change, as do forms and, where appropriate, equally in terms of the physical anthropology Geography of Italian Pasta 565 of the body (obesity and other such negative interpreted, and to turn them into a form of traits) and socioculturally. Cook and Crang cultural emissary for the ethnic group that (1996) saw this “decontextualization” of foods originated them. Hence, he argued, food both as a schism between production and consump- reinforces ethnic ties and bridges ethnic divides tion on the basis of the increasingly fragmented (Van den Berghe 1984, 393). On the other and far-flung processes of growing, transport- hand, Baudrillard (1981) suggested that the ing, storing, and marketing food. However, in forces of capitalist expansion deliberately Italy the processes of change are by no means weaken the links between social structure and complete. Hence, much of the recent work on culture in order to increase profits. Hence the food geographies and sociologies as yet offers multinational food corporations deal in sym- little insight there, because it deals with the bols more than they sell products. Marxists modern mobility of food rather than its geo- adopt a more extreme attitude and call this graphical stability. “consumer fetishism” ( Jhally 1987; Cooke and Thus the best dried pasta still comes from Crang 1996 referred to it as “commodity fe- the original centers of excellence, especially tishism”). But whatever it is, there is no doubt Torre del in the Naples area, Fara San that modern commercial culture calls into Martino in the Abruzzi, and in Um- question the validity of regional traditions and bria. Despite this, the manufactories are open usages. Italians may be moving in the direction as never before to importation of grain from of their cousins across the Atlantic: Goode et abroad, and in terms of exports they are facing al. (1984) found that adhere increasing competition from other countries, to menus only on certain days especially the . Emilia-Romagna of the week and when they can afford the time has countered this with a policy of integrating to appreciate them. its food production resources and emphasizing Thus, television advertising, the growth of their high quality in order to create what has literacy, and the universal broadening of tastes come to be known as “Food Valley,” in imita- have made what were once strictly regional del- tion of California’s “Silicon Valley.” Though icacies standard fare many hundreds of kilome- small, local pastifici have sprung up in response ters from their points of origin. Efficient mar- to the demand for high quality “artisan-made” keting and distribution have made the products pasta (especially in Umbria and Apulia Re- widely available. Competition among manu- gions), many other producers have been taken facturers has led to the introduction of many over by the multinationals, such as , SpA, new names for types of pasta, mutato nomine, and their production has been standardized. As which is in effect a false tradition. One interest- national consumption, which peaked in the ing development of the mid-1990s is the rein- 1960s, has leveled off at about 25 kg per person troduction of long spaghetti alla napoletana, per annum, further expansion in production is which until recently were considered too un- only likely to come from aggressive expansion wieldy to have a future. Marketed as a sort of of export markets, if this can be achieved “limited edition” they have proved wildly pop- (Anderson 1994). ular: the secret of their success is the reintro- Though this process may seem to be the duction of trafile di bronzo, the old-style brass death knell of regional distinctiveness, not all pressing plates that give the pasta a rough, po- sociologists agree that modern consumption rous surface which is better able to adsorb estranges and alienates. For example, McIn- sauce than the surface produced by teflon- tosh (1996) argued that the challenge of the coated slots. food industry has been to meet the demand for In synthesis, the very desire to preserve and nostalgia by offering tradition, family warmth emphasize regional traditions in Italian pasta is and cohesion, local color, craftsmanship, and causing their subtle erosion as commercial healthiness. Van den Berghe (1984) took a pos- forces prevail over cultural ones. Nevertheless, itive view of the impact of urbanization on food there is no let up in the Italian passion for the traditions. He observed that ethnic cuisine is : indeed, there is now a museum of likely to be a survivor of the urban melting-pot, pasta, the Museo Storico degli Spaghetti at which serves both to revitalize culinary tradi- Pontedassio. But in the end, the only truly sat- tions, by allowing them to be recreated and re- isfactory way to analyze pasta is to eat it. ᭿ 566 Volume 52, Number 3, August 2000

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