The Geography of Italian Pasta
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The Geography of Italian Pasta David Alexander University of Massachusetts, Amherst Pasta is as much an institution as a food in Italy, 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 spaghetti and tubular families, pasta shells, ribbon forms, short pasta, very small or “micro- pasta” types, the ravioli family of filled pasta, and the dumpling family, which includes gnocchi. Three patterns of dif- fusion of pasta types are identified: by sea, usually from the Mezzogiorno and Sicily, locally through adjacent regions, 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 vegetable soup (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 Marco Polo returned (Milioni 1998). L to Venice from China in 1298 he brought The rise of pasta was a predictable develop- with him the recipe for flour-based dough noo- ment. In 70 B.C. wheat production in Sicily dles that were to be cooked in boiling water and reached 250 million kilograms and importation served with a condiment of savory sauce. But of that grain to Rome 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 Ravenna, King of the Os- Roman granaries be thrown into the River trogoths (circa A.D. 523), and still others to the Tiber. 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 Cerveteri 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 vermicelli, 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), Horace 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. 554 Volume 52, Number 3, August 2000 ab Figure 1: Location maps: (a) regions of Italy; (b) cities, towns and other places mentioned in the text. sites: hard-grain semolina wheat, sweet water, people who did nothing but make macaroni 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 tomato (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 Siena in the from Sicily to Genoa. The Genoese, who were 1560s and the Naples 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 tomato sauce did not become and lasagne 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 Trapani, 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 Middle Ages 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 cheese 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 vegetables, 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 Torre Annunziata 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 pizza, which developed in Asia 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 foods 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, agri- gnawing pangs of hunger, but until then many cultural change, and gender issues (Murcott poor people could only afford cornmeal and 1983).