Channeling Julia

Italians delight in creating new shapes for pasta. From the basic rolling pin and knife used to make noodles to space age machinery that fills thousands of bags a day, Italian creativity seems to know no limits.

Our "wagon wheel" pasta was once very popular in Ohio supermarkets under the brand of the former Ippolito's Ideal Macaroni Company of Cleveland, Ohio. It was sold under the name of "Choo Choo Wheels" and was particularly enjoyed by children. The box had a picture of a train and children could use the pasta to make the wheels. In italy this shape of pasta is called rotelle.

Any cook who has made unleavened dough, rolled it out into thin sheets and cut the sheets into strips has made noodles. Noodles can be made using wheat, rice, beans, potatoes, buckwheat and more. What makes pasta unique is the way it holds its shape when boiled al dente - thanks to the high gluten content. Noodles made with other starches don't have this firm texture when cooked and tend to be very limp. Pasta is unique in its ability to be cut into many shapes and retain those shapes when cooked.

A flat sheet of pasta can be cut with cookie cutters to make flat shapes. These can be crimped, twisted, bent, pinched or molded. Roll the dough over a dowel and make a seam, pull out the dowel and you have a tube. Squirt pasta out a nozzle and make longer pieces. Cross cut long pieces at different angles. Give each one a name that suits the shape - seashells, bow ties, wagon wheels - there are over 300 different shapes.

Using machinery, these processes can be automated and delivered to your grocer ready to use.

North African couscous is one of the oldest forms of pasta. As durum wheat was carried from the Mediterranean throughout Asia, recipes from Persia and Turkey made their way East with the Mongol hordes and influenced the cuisine of Northern China.

The variety of Chinese food depends largely on two staples, rice and wheat - the starches. Rice will not grow too far North, so Northern Chinese meals depend on wheat and that is where you'll find very spicy dishes stir fried with wheat noodles. Elsewhere in Asia we find the wheat noodle repeated. Vermicelli is very popular in several Vietnamese dishes.

Pasta products have made their way into foods enjoyed by many cultures. The Italians have brought pasta making to a high art and Italian style dishes are the basis of several emerging cuisines from Japan, Hong Kong and India to South America.

Contrary to pervasive myths of Italian food, Marco Polo did not introduce pasta to Europe. What he did find in China were rice or millet noodles similar to semolina noodles (with which he was already familiar).

Horace wrote of thin sheets of dough which were fried in the first century BC, but the cooking methods had no relationship to those which make modern day pasta. The high gluten hard durum wheat necessary to make semolina was introduced to Sicily about 600 years before Marco Polo by the Arabs. The first recipes for making "pasta" date from early Renaissance Italy.

Durum wheat is unrelated to other commonly used varieties of wheat like hard red winter wheat. It seems to have originated in Egypt or Abyssinia, but did not become widely cultivated until the rise of the Muslim world and the Mongol invasions of the Middle East which introduced it to East Asia.

A very healthy treat - we're serving our Carrot Apple Puree with wedges of yellow cake.

A puree is a paste created by mashing, pressing & straining (or the use of a food processor) vegetables or fruits. Apple sauce and mashed potatoes are typical examples we consume as adults, though baby foods are probably the biggest seller.

Most cultures throughout history have produced some kind of mashed fruits and vegetables to serve babies. In the US baby food was made at home until the mid 1900's. Although there had been a commercially prepared baby food in the Netherlands as early as 1901, the first commercially prepared baby food in the United States came in 1928 from the Fremont Canning Company. The Beech-Nut company entered the market in 1931. Organic baby food became popular in the 1980's.

Purees are found in many cuisines and not just in baby food. Mashed potatoes is one form of puree that we're all familiar with. Purees are used to make soups, tomato paste, pumpkin pie filling and dishes like hummus (chickpeas), bisque (shellfish), pimento (olives), guacamole, polenta and peanut butter (to name a few).

The gratin cooking technique layers raw ingredients and a liquid (usually cream, milk or bouillon) in a shallow dish topped with breadcrumbs and cheese. While baking, the ingredients below cook as the liquid boils off. The cheese on top melts, is absorbed by the bread crumbs and browns - creating a crusty top.

As the name indicates, this method of cooking originated in France (though similar techniques are traditional in Italy and Sweden). Most of us know the gratin style of cooking through servings of "scalloped potatoes" or potatoes gratiné. The technique is also used to prepare fish, eggplant, cauliflower, squash and even spinach.