SelectionA popular dish par excellence, pasta is that great basic that everyone, from the broke student to the overwhelmed parent, can decorate with the means at hand. Like these absolute classics, revisited by culinary journalist Camille Labro.
Virtually absent from the repertoire of French bourgeois cuisine, pasta is, like bread and in many regions and cultures, a popular basic dish, the plate that feeds everyone, the peasant as well as the student. . Who doesn’t remember “pasta for nothing” or “so little”? Pasta with garlic and oil (aglio e olio, with possibly a little chilli), instant Asian noodles, buttered pasta shells or vermicelli soup… An everyday food, pasta can also become a sophisticated party dish, as it is an ideal medium for tastes and textures.
Long or short, flat, twisted, smooth or ribbed, tubular, they catch the sauce or coat it, entwine vegetables or stuff themselves, thicken soups, bake in the oven, adorn themselves with truffles, fresh herbs, seafood… They do not reject any possibility, any companion on the plate, as long as we respect their cooking time and the accuracy of the combinations. A know-how that, unlike other culinary techniques, the most modest cooks and cooks share with the great chefs.
Pasta has its golden rules. You should never ignore their quality, nor the cooking time and the care to devote to them.
The origin of pasta is rooted in the history of humanity, and many countries, from East to West, claim its paternity. The very first pasta, ancestors of spätzle or pasta grattugiata, would be the risnatu made by the Mesopotamians with ground wheat and water, grated or crumbled then poached in a boiling liquid.
Many historians agree that dry pasta was invented by nomadic Arab populations, rolled into small thin tubes (the first macaroni) and dried on ropes to facilitate transport. In China, the oldest noodle dish dates back to four thousand years ago, according to the latest archaeological discoveries in the ruins of Lajia – millet noodles, hand-pulled as they can still be traditionally made today.
Difficult, therefore, to disentangle popular myths and historical realities. One thing is certain: humans have been eating this simple mixture of water and flour (durum wheat or wheat, spelled, rice, buckwheat, millet, corn, etc.) for millennia. , sometimes seasoned with egg and salt. Shaped in a thousand ways, cooked using all sorts of techniques (on a hot stone, in water, steamed, in broth, grilled, fried, etc.), pasta is one of the most diverse dishes there is, and each country, each region, even each family has its recipe, its techniques, its secrets. Finally, pasta has its golden rules. You should never ignore their quality, nor the cooking time and the care to devote to them. Universal, ecumenical food, dough is also what binds us.
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