A Short History of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce

Description

Pasta is an iconic symbol of Italy and its cuisine. Hundreds of shapes and thousands of recipes give expression to the culture and products of the country's regions. But spaghetti with tomato sauce remains Italy's identity dish par excellence. Massimo Montanari goes in search of the dish's true origins, tracing its history along the multiple, intricate routes taken by its raw ingredients to merge and become the distinctive element of a whole culinary tradition. Did medieval explorer Marco Polo bring pasta back from China, or is that a myth? How did the Neapolitan "macharoni" turn into the ubiquitous spaghetti? And is it even an Italian dish? In the kitchen, the blending of practices and traditions is as necessary as seasoning. It took almost two thousand years and input from the Far East, the Arabic world, and the Americas, for spaghetti with tomato sauce to take centre stage. Its development is the result of chance encounters, unplanned exchanges, and unpredictable intersections. The deeper we dig in search of the dish's origins, the more we find its strands wrap right around the world.

Massimo Montanari, currently Professor of Medieval History at Bologna University, is a scholar in Food studies. He has been invited as visiting professor to a number of leading universities in Europe, Japan, the United States, Mexico and Canada, and is one of the founders of the international review Food & History. Gregory Conti teaches English at the University of Perugia and is a regular contributor to Raritan. His most recent translations are "Seven Poems" by Elisa Biagini and The Fault Line by Paolo Rumiz (Rizzoli USA, 2015).

"When I tell you that I would travel far for a good ragu, you'll appreciate why I also devoured Massimo Montanari's A Short History of Spaghetti With Tomato Sauce, an anatomy of a culture on a plate, and delicious with it." * The Guardian * "Disentangling the serpentine strands of the story can be complicated, like working your way through a mound of spaghetti, but Montanari provides a focused overview. Although compact, the book is stuffed with rich ideas." * The TLS * "Food historian Montanari reflect[s] on the meaning of roots, identities, and origins in this illuminating examination of one of the world's most famous culinary pairings. While this scholarly treatise may be better suited for those with big appetites for knowledge, it's full of delicious details." * Publisher's Weekly * "A very entertaining account of the cultural significance and history of the Italian dish... a fun, knowledgeable and well written book." * NB Magazine * "Cultural historian Montanari has deconstructed pasta's history and come up with some surprising data.... [His] research will delight readers and provide plenty of fodder for dinner-table discussion." * Booklist * "Delightful....a brief and hugely entertaining read." * Buzz Magazine * "An utterly fascinating discourse on food history." * The Daily Beast * "Montanari traces the unstoppable rise of what would become the most famous dish in the whole world." * Robinson * "A learned and entertaining volume." * Il Giornale *