A brief history of pasta. The true story. Part II.

In part I, we introduced the long and complex origin of pasta to the Italian kitchen. Today, Italians gobble up between 66 and 77 pounds (30 and 35 kilograms) of pasta every year, more than anywhere else in the world. Yes, that even includes China. In fact, Italians must import pasta to keep up with the national demand. But a more interesting question of demand is that of the American diner, whose pressures on immigrant chefs would give rise to what many falsely interpret as a typical Italian dish–spaghetti with meatballs.

Though both spaghetti and meatballs individually have been traditional parts of the Italian diet for years, their unity was actually an invention of Italian-American immigrants. In part I, we explored the origin of pasta in Italy and touched upon the introduction of tomatoes from the New World. Meatball consumption, on the other hand, can be traced further back to the ancient Romans.

Still, bringing together these three in a common dish would not unfold until hundreds of years after Colombus made his maiden voyage across the Atlantic, and the dish, as said, was taken up by immigrants, who opening up restaurants on American shores sought to cook for their non-Italian clientele. The Italian kitchen drew much of its innovation from a scarcity of resources and ingredients, a scarcity that simply was not present in an abundant American society.

It was harder for the American customer to accept that many elements of Italian cooking were traditionally kept separate or in smaller portions. Many of them had also come from countries in northern Europe originally, where there was a distinctly different culinary precedent.

Non-Italians were accustomed to both meat and starch on the same plate, and demanded it from the Italian-American restaurants they frequented, even if this was unheard of and perhaps unorthodox for the Italians.

As a result of such, the large helping of Spaghetti and meatballs with tomato sauce has made its way into American pop culture and eventually back across the Atlantic. All over Rome you’ll find the dish on the tourist menu where it sits well to appease the demands of the American tourist.

For more information on the evolution of the Italian kitchen, google Pellegrino Artusi, the “Father of the Italian Kitchen.” His 1897 writing of La Scienza della Cucina e L’arte di Mangiar Bene (The Science of the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well), would help to create a unified Italian kitchen from the scattered and distinct traditions inherent in the unique geographies and histories of the 20 regions of Italy. (Though you won’t find any mention of Spaghetti with meatballs in there).