Description
Book SynopsisExploding the myth that Marco Polo discovered pasta in China and brought it back to Italy, this volume shows that pasta has existed in various forms throughout Middle Eastern, Asian, and even North African culinary cultures long before its appearance in the West.
Trade ReviewServenti and Sabban's remarkable tracing of pasta's history and development makes this a central addition to the history of food. -- Mark Knoblauch Booklist [Pasta] is stuffed as tight as cannelloni with facts, numbers and quotes...an excellent study not only of pasta but of the way a single product can mutate and influence various economies over time...no doubt the exhaustive new authority on its subject. Publishers Weekly A feast for the mind. Guardian Offers more in the way of pasta history than most readers have even begun to imagine. Kirkus Reviews There are countless books on pasta, but none before has really explained how noodles took over the world, from the two great civilizations of China and Italy... [Pasta] is rich with stories. -- Bee Wilson London Times You might think that a 400-plus-page book about pasta wouldn't be much of a page turner, but you'd be wrong...Serventi & Sabban have written an engrossing book. -- Dan Santow Chicago Tribune [A]nyone who cares about pasta (which is to say, anyone who eats) will find a great deal of fascinating material to savor. This book is catnip for history buffs. -- Fred Plotkin Gastronomica Pasta shows how much is to be gained by looking at historical change through the lens provided by... food. -- Priscilla Ferguson Journal of Modern History
Table of ContentsSeries Editor's Preface Preface Note Concerning a Definition of Pasta Products Acknowledgments Introduction: In the Beginning Was Wheat 1. The Infancy of an Art 2. The Time of the Pioneers 3. From the Hand to the Extrusion Press 4. The Golden Age of the Pasta Manufactory 5. The Industrial Age 6. Pasta Without Borders 7. The Time of Plenty 8. The Taste for Pasta 9. China: Pasta's Other Homeland 10. The Words of Pasta
