October 19, 2010

• National Pasta Day

  
  October 17th was officially National Pasta Day! I had no idea there was a pasta day as I am Italian…every day is a pasta day! My mom is always making meatballs and sauce or should I say, “gravy” for our pasta dinner.

  There are literally HUNDREDS of different shapes of pasta, inlcuding spaghetti, fusilli, lasagne, etc. For someone who is bad at making decisions, picking out a type of pasta is always tough! It’s hard to beat fresh linguini.

  Here is a fun fact about pasta…I had always heard that Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy from China BUT did you know Thomas Jefferson is known for introducing pasta to the United States… Thank you Mr.Jefferson!

  Thomas Jefferson, rightly or wrongly credited with first bringing pasta to the tables of Americans, drew a picture of a pasta-making machine. This drawing, now in the Library of Congress, resulted from a trip to Italy taken by Jefferson in 1787. Don’t forget that “macaroni” served as a generic name for pasta and doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re talking abut elbow macaroni.

  

  Here’s recipe for Macaroni Pudding from Thomas Jefferson’s Cook Book (the recipe actually comes from Mrs. Horace Mann, Marie Kimball’s version of Jefferson’s cook book)

  Cook macaroni in milk until tender; 2 ounces to a pint of milk will make a good-sized pudding. Add 5 eggs, 3/4 cup of sugar, flavor with lemon or rose water and bake one hour. Well doesn’t sound like my mom’s.

  In honor of pasta day I declare this pasta week. I will start tonight by having angel hair pasta with ricotta cheese.

  • 12:34 am
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