The Encyclopedia of Pasta

A couple of interesting articles from the net:

Retta Zanini de Vita, the 'pre-eminent Italian food historian', recently released "The Encyclopedia of Pasta". In the article, 'So you think you know pasta', Rachael Donadio from the New York Times, visits Zanini de Vita  to discuss her book. As with any subject, the history of pasta ends up being about much more than the object of inquiry. This history is a microcosm of the broader history of Italy. In it we find the influence of the Arabs in the middle ages, and the bitter regionalism from which that country was born and is still characterized by today.


Some interesting facts include ravioli being traced to the 11th Century Arab world as opposed to Liguria, as is claimed by the locals of that village. And no, Marco Polo did not introduce pasta to Italy. Pasta was spread by the Muslim conquerors of Sicily around 800 AD, 200 years before Polo's travels,

In the article, 'When Novelists Sober Up', Tom Shone from Intelligent Life, looks at alcoholic writers and their attempts to get off the sauce. A pretty astounding number of the 20th century's popular novelists battled the bottle with varying degrees of success. The list includes: Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Carver, Cheever, Bukowski (duh),  Hemingway, Leonard, Yates, Amis, and yes, even Stephen King. Apparently he was so sloshed when he banged out 'Cujo' that he doesn't remember writing it. Just as interesting as the article itself is the number of mistakes that Shone gets called out on in the comments forum. Check it out.