- The etymology of the word lasagna is amusing. It starts with the Greek lasanon which means 'chamber pot'! The Romans borrow it as lasanum to humorously refer to a 'cooking pot'. Later, the Italian word lasagne (plural of lasagna) came to refer to a dish cooked in such a pot - flat sheets of pasta layered with minced meat and tomatoes topped with grated cheese. Soon, the word lasagna was applied to the pasta itself.
- There are three theories on the origin of lasagna, two of which denote an ancient Greek dish. The main theory is that lasagna comes from Greek λάγανον (laganon), a flat sheet of pasta dough cut into strips. The word λαγάνα (lagana) is still used in Greek to mean a flat thin type of unleavened bread. The other theory is that the word lasagna comes from the Greek λάσανα (lasana) or λάσανον (lasanon) meaning "trivet or stand for a pot", "chamber pot". The Romans borrowed the word as "lasanum", meaning "cooking pot" in Latin.
The Italians used the word to refer to the dish in which lasagne is
made. Later the name of the food took on the name of the serving dish.
A third theory proposed that the dish is a development of the 14th century English recipe "Loseyn" as described in The Forme of Cury, a cook book in use during the reign of Richard II.
This has similarities to modern lasagne in both its recipe, which
features a layering of ingredients between pasta sheets, and its name.
However, an important difference is the lack of tomatoes, which did not
arrive in Europe until after Columbus reached America in 1492. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in an herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli while the earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources.
- There are more than 600 pasta shapes world wide.
- The word pasta comes from the Italian word for paste, meaning a
combination of flour and water and includes many forms of spaghetti,
macaroni and egg noodles. The term pasta has always been used on Italian
restaurant menus to include all the various pasta offerings.
- Cooked al dente literally means to the tooth, which is how to test pasta
to see if it is properly cooked. The pasta should be a bit firm,
offering some resistance to the tooth, but tender.
- Thomas Jefferson is credited with introducing macaroni to the United
States. It seems that he fell in love with a certain dish he sampled in
Naples while serving as the U.S. Minister to France from 1785 to 1789.
In fact, he promptly ordered crates of maccheroni, along with a
pasta-making machine, sent back to the States.
- On record, the Chinese have eaten pasta as early as 5 000 B.C.
- According to legend, noodles were first made by German bakers in the
13th century. They molded dough into symbolic shapes, such as stars,
swords and birds, which they then baked and served as bread.
- Top quality pasta is made from durum wheat. According to the North
Dakota Agricultural Statistics Service, about 73 % of the durum wheat
grown in the United States is actually grown in North Dakota. American
grown durum wheat is considered among the best in the world.
- Pasta is one of the foods kids most frequently eat at home, according to
research conducted by Land OLakes. Seventeen percent eat spaghetti
while 16 percent eat macaroni and cheese. Statistics from the NPD Group,
a custom research group, show that kids eat 62 pounds of pasta each
yearmore than any other age group.
- Christopher Columbus, one of Italys most famous pastaphiles, was born in October, which is now National Pasta Month.
- The first American pasta factory was opened in Brooklyn, New York, in
1848, by a Frenchman named Antoine Zerega. Mr. Zerega managed the entire
operation with just one horse in his basement to power the machinery.
To dry his spaghetti, he placed strands of the pasta on the roof in the
sunshine.
- Pasta existed for thousands of years before anybody ever thought of
putting tomato sauce on it. Cortez, a Spanish explorer, brought tomatoes
back to Europe from Mexico in 1519. Even then, nearly 200 years passed
before spaghetti served with tomato sauce made its way into Italian
kitchens.
- According to Harry Balzer (NPD Group, Chicago), consumers enjoy pasta
for dinner more than 40 times a year approximately once a week.
