A Short History of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce
Overall Ranking 4) Totally Optional
A 100~ish Word Review for a 100~ish Page Book
Starting from a 4000-year-old Sumerian cuneiform tablet containing a recipe for a risnatu to a cookbook in 1837 finally tossing in a handful of basil into tomato sauce for the first recorded time you will learn about the many forces, cultures, and customs that had to come together to bring a plate of spaghetti on your plate. You'll learn things such as, 'No, Marco Polo did NOT discover pasta', to 'A truly traditional pasta is to be boiled for over an hour ' and 'Yes, Italians did sort of invent the fork to help them eat more pasta'.
Written by one of Europe’s foremost scholars of the evolution of agriculture, landscape, food, and nutrition since the Middle Ages, the author Massimo Montanari is the Professor of Food History at the University of Bologna and writes like one. Its heavily academic but easily understood and can be read in under 90 minutes. He emphasizes how despite the meal being Italian in the eyes of the world that it is really a symbol of how all the world had to come together to get it on your plate.
In short, an excellent afternoon read to gain some more background on the surprising history of noodles but probably won't change your life. Could be a fun topic for your Thanksgiving table though.
Read it and Liked It?
If interested in what happens to spaghetti and tomato sauce after the year 1873, you should pick up a copy of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American by Ian MacAllen. Your Italian-American uncle will be slinging vulgarities once he learns how much of his Italian heritage has deep American based roots.
Books to Bowls OUT!
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