Talk:Pasta

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Nomination date: 2007-03-25

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Well, evidence confirms that pasta was invented in China. That 2000 BCE bowl of pasta still looked edible too.

-intranetusa



"pasta is a type of noodle" -- This definition seems circular, as Collins dictionary (and my gut instinct ;) says "noodles" are a type of pasta. -- Tarquin Monday, June 17, 2002

I'd love someone to fix up this noodle business. In British English 'noodle' implies just one kind of pasta-shape - one that's long and thin. Calling farfalle/fusilli/penne/ravioli etc 'noodles' is thus very odd - is this widespread usage in USA/other English-speaking nations? 87.115.228.253 20:05, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

I've a different story about the origins of the pasta. It seems that pasta comes from the south of Italy, from Sicily, as a variant of an Arab food. That was a food that nomads tribes used during their long travels around the desert because it was easy to conserve.

2-11-2004

A nice story, but not very likely, I dont think that they would cary extra water with them for cooking noodels. Noodel-s (from Latin Nodus) or Pasta(also from a latin word) where known in ancient Greece and Italy for way over 2000 Years long before Arabs set foot on Nort-African soil.--62.178.137.216 12:24, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Black ravioli

I had black ravioli for the first time last night. What makes it black? Someone suggested squid ink. Evertype 12:10, 2005 Mar 20 (UTC)

Usually it`s coloured with Sepia-ink the same ink that is used in Asia for traditionell painting and calligraphy.62.178.137.216 17:18, 1 May 2005 (UTC)


don't know if the wiki was lifted from this site or the site was lifted from the wiki... but someone's plagiarizing: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Pasta ( - unsigned)

They've copied from here. They're allowed to do that: it's not plagiarism because they provide a link back to the original article, as required by the GFDL (though it's very, very, very, ver tiny), and they don't present the work as their own. - Nunh-huh 00:36, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Well pasta is made with cheese so it was probably moldy cheese.

[edit] Vermicelli

In the article is written that Vermicelli are thinner than Spaghetti instead in Italy Spaghetti are thinner. Is it a mistake or an American different naming?

Since nobody replied I put that vermicelli are thicker than spaghetti and deleted spaghettoni and vermicelloni that are not typical kinds of pasta but a commercial invention. --Zimbricchio 08:23, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

Vermicelli are thinner then Spaghetti! The name means little worms btw. even thinner are capelli di angeli, angelshair. ;-)62.178.137.216 13:22, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
Spaghetti means little strings, but the translations don't help
ok, that means we'll write both
--Zimbricchio 18:39, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Pasta numbers

I have recently seen in several mediterranean countries that pasta packages there are labeled with a number that indicates the pasta shape. These pasta-shape numbers appear to be a vendor-independent list. I wonder, where one can find the full list of these standard pasta numbers. Markus Kuhn 12:10, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

The numbers are not standardized. See cut number. --Macrakis 23:30, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Noodles (again)

[edit] Die

In the line "Pasta is made either by extrusion, where the ingredients are forced through holes in a plate known as a die" there is a link to die in wikipedia but this link only goes to many different types of the word die. can this link be made more specific and is there an actual page to link to? --iceman 16:02, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Perogies

Are perogies pasta? Should they be mentioned? What about Asian forms of pasta, such as won-ton? Fishhead64 18:37, 9 May 2006 (UTC) I think you are running into the dialect difference in noodle/pasta discussed above. Chinese noodles are discussed in their own article and I would never consider them pasta. I would consider pierogi neither noodles nor pasta. Rmhermen 21:09, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, they look somewhat like ravioli, but no, they shouldn't be considered pasta. You might put a meaningless line in there, like, "Ravioli can sometimes be confused with pasta," even though that's not true at all. --Knightskye 05:49, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

I know this is an old comment, but I'm both polish and Italian and I never quite looked at Perogies as pasta. I believe they are made differently, but don't quote me on that. Perhaps completely different cooking material as well? WiiAlbanyGirl 04:11, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Marco Polo

I was under the impression that Marco Polo brought back the idea of pasta back from China to Venice c1300? Is this completely untrue? What exactly are these images on an Etruscan tomb that 'prove' the existence of pasta in Italy before then? Is there any record of the Romans eating Pasta? I would have thought there would be plenty of Roman pasta recipes in existence, seeing as they copied most other things from the Etruscans. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.5.200.56 (talk • contribs) 11:53, 3 December 2006 (UTC).

[edit] American Pasta

I snipped the bit about when pasta was brought to the United States. It it's irrelevent to the history of pasta as no new development of pasta occured. It is also not the place to list when pasta arrived to various countries, are you going to list when it arrived to Japan, Estonia and Bavaria also? Otherwise the POV is Americo-centric.

If you want to include this section, and if it is indeed that interesting, I suggest a "pasta in the USA section"

Thomas Jefferson is credited with bringing the first macaroni machine to America in 1789 when he returned home after serving as ambassador to France.[citation needed] The first commercial pasta manufacturer in America was Antoine Zerega, a Frenchman of Italian descent who began making pasta in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, in 1848.[1]

Dimensional dan 01:53, 9 December 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Brown Rice Pasta

I've just discovered this stuff, the only ingredient is brown rice but its somehow processed to behave exactly like traditional pasta. It seems very awkward considering it not to be a pasta, because it works best in traditional pasta dishes and it as marketed as a pasta, although a purist definition might exclude it. I think it should be mentioned in the article though. I couldn't find anything about it on wikipedia, and this is an appropriate article for it. (In case you havn't tried it and are skeptical: personally I think its better than any supermarket variety dried pastas.) Brentt 18:51, 18 January 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Should be cooked

Changed "It should always be cooked 'al dente' - with a slight bite" to "It is traditionally cooked..." 161.149.63.105 21:19, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pasta Machine

In the entire Wiki there seems to be no mention of the process of creating sheet or ribbon pasta with a 'pasta machine' or 'mangle', perhaps someone with more knowledge of the process could add it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 212.159.18.197 (talk) 22:11, 5 March 2007 (UTC).