WEBVTT - 9 Saucy, Savory Facts About Pasta 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.960 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:19.120 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.560 Guess what, Mango, what's that? Well, you know I love numbers, 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:28.480 so I'm going to start out with a big number here. 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:30.520 Did you know that there are over three hundred and 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.600 fifty different pasta shapes? Mango, I didn't know that, which 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.320 means there are over three hundred and fifty different pasta 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.360 shape names. That's really what I'm getting at here, each 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:42.320 with its own backstories. So you want to hear one 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:42.920 of my favorites. 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:45.480 Obviously I want to hear because this would have been. 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:47.520 A very short episode if you're like, no, not really 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:50.080 really in the mood for one of those this today? 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.320 Not the carbs, Yeah, not carbs today. All right, So 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.920 this story is all about Kava Tapi, which is that long, 0:00:57.040 --> 0:00:59.960 loose spiral, and it turns out it was originally called Chillin' 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.880 Tani after an Italian pop star, So tell me, what. 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:05.680 Does a pop star have to do with pasta? 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:09.520 So cell and Tani was originally created by the company Gorilla, 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:11.959 but it was a mistake. It happened because of a 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:14.920 problem with aposthadize that they were using. So those are 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:17.039 the molds that you feed the dough through to give 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.480 the final producted shape. And so in the nineteen sixties, 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.480 Brilla had some dyes that were supposed to have these 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:27.000 very straight lines but accidentally ended up with curvy ones. 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.360 So workers fed the dough through and out came this 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.039 new corkscrew shape. Now, because the shape was springy, it 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.720 reminded people of the company of the singer Andreano Cellantano, 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:41.560 who was known for his high energy bouncy dancing. So 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:45.120 Brilla trademarked the name cell and Tani and they are 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:47.960 selling it under that name today. And the shape became 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.440 so popular that other companies wanted to get in on 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:54.120 this game, but they actually couldn't use Gorilla's trademark, so 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.960 they called it Kava tapi, which comes from the Italian 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:00.200 word for corkscrew. But actually, here's a little bon this 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.080 fact for you. The most popular pasta shape in the 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.960 United States is something much more straightforward than a corkscrew. It's, 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:11.280 of course, spaghetti, which can be translated as little strings. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:13.840 Well, first of all, I want to say how amazing 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.800 it is. The Brilla tried to make a straight pasta 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:19.720 and it ended up permed total. 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:20.919 Perm must have been a humid that day. 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:25.040 But I also love the idea that spaghetti translates as 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.880 little strings. Does that mean that like a single piece 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.079 of spaghetti is actually a spaghetto? 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:32.440 That is absolutely what it means. So now you can 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:34.800 go to Italy and order a single noodle, just like 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:35.839 all the locals do there. 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:40.040 I don't think anyone can stop at just one foodle 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.919 But in addition to being delicious, all this pasta is 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.200 packed with history, which is the best flavor of all. 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:49.720 So today on the show, we've gotten nine fact about 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.919 Italian pasta. So grab your fourth and that's not even an. 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.600 Hey, their podcast listener is welcome to part time Genius. 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:17.000 I'm Will Pearson Ennis Always. I'm here with my good 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.320 friend Mangush hot ticket here and over there in the 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:21.519 booth dressed up. It took me a minute, but he's 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.440 dressed up like a Pizza Hut restaurant with a red 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.480 roof hat. It's really it's impressive. Actually, it's our pal 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.079 and producer Dylan Fagan, always surprising us. 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.200 I think that's from the Pizza Hut stunt where they 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.640 claimed they were changing their name to Pasta Hut. 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.840 Do you remember I actually actually don't. But is that 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:39.440 a real thing? 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.960 Yeah? It was an April Fool's joke and they talked 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:47.040 about changing all their names, and people were outraged or excited, 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:50.119 depending on how much they love pasta. But I love 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:51.400 that Dylan picked up on it. 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:52.480 That's pretty amazing. 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:55.040 So will are you a big pasta eater? 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:58.640 I love pasta so so so much, how about you? 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:01.800 So much that every time I go for a business lunch, 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.040 I tell myself I'm gonna order the salad, and then 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:05.760 I just end up with like a bowl of bread. 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.040 It's too hard not to have. 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:12.040 No willpower for the stuff. But here is my first fact. 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.480 So I want to address a question I know people 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:17.320 would be asking, which is what is the difference between 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:20.680 pasta and noodles. Now I've heard some folks say that 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:24.200 pasta is Italian and noodles are from other cuisines, like 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.120 Chinese rice noodles or Korean sweet potato noodles. But for 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.760 the purposes of this episode, we are going with the 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:35.400 Oxford English Dictionaries definition, and the OED defines a noodle 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.360 as quote a string or ribbon like piece of pasta 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:44.200 or similar flour paste, sometimes containing egg, typically cooked in 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.120 liquid and served either in a soup or as an 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.080 accompaniment to another dish. 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:51.720 So noodles can be a type of pasta, but they 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:52.600 aren't always. 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.520 Yeah, So the oed goes on to define pasta as quote, 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.719 especially an Italian cookery thin strands, sheets, or other shapes 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:03.680 of dome made from Durham wheat and water, sometimes enriched 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:07.200 with egg, usually sold dried and cooked in boiling water. 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.200 All right, So by this definition, spaghetti is a type 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.040 of noodle and a type of pasta. And something like 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.839 pusilli obviously is a pasta, but not a noodle, is 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:17.280 that right? 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:19.760 That's right? And rice noodles are noodles, but they're not 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:22.880 pasta because they're not Italian and they're also not made 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:24.520 from this particular type of wheat. 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:25.760 Got it understood? 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.520 So we might get some emails about this, but that's 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.400 where we stand. And speaking of strong opinions, we ask 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.240 people to tell us about their favorite pasta shapes. And 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:36.760 this is so much fun. A lot of folks talked 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.320 about sauce grabability as their number one factor in determining this. 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.760 Our friend Doug Mack, who writes the Great Snackstack Newsletter 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.039 which everyone should subscribe to said he loves fettuccini because 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:50.880 you can wrap it around a fork, but unlike spaghetti, 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.120 it's flat, so sauce sticks to it better. Over on 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.599 Blue Sky, someone with the user named gravel Influencer, which 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:01.440 I also really love, describes themselves as a hardcore fan 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:07.120 of Jammelli. Again for sauce reasons. Stacey chose Campanelle, and 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:08.760 I have to admit I'd never heard of that one. 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:11.640 It is a cone with ruffled edge and the name 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:14.760 means little bells, but it's also known as trumpetti or 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.039 trump bits and I actually have a picture of this. 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:19.719 It's amazing. You can see how sauce would really get 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:21.800 right down there in the horn part. Man, I want 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.520 to eat that, I know I want. I actually want 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.240 like a pasta Biles Davis, steady kind. Another one I 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.599 had to look up was Strozza Preete, which actually was 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.679 mentioned by a few folks on Blue Sky. Strotza prete 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.279 means priest strangler. 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.000 Priest strangler, what? Why does it mean? That? 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:41.760 It is a long hand rolled tube shape kind of 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.800 like cavatelli. Apparently the name reflects local opinions about greedy 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:48.599 priest from a time when the Catholic Church owned most 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.520 of the land and charge farmers high rent. There's also 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.040 the user ham Hawk, who shouted out cascatelli, which of 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.760 course is the curved ruffled shape invented by Dan Pashman 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:03.560 on his pcast. And I love this response from Faisal, 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.120 who said there is no best pasta shape. They're all 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.800 beautiful and it depends on the sauce. And although we 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:12.960 didn't ask about this, a few people did tell us 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:16.400 about their least favorite pasta shape. A listener named Oriole 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:20.120 wrote to say that spaghetti is just too thick, angel 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.239 hair and vermicelli are better, and over on Blue Sky, 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:28.000 user l nk Joe said the worst shape is obviously 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:32.000 rakeete or rackets, and he shared a photo and they 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.520 literally look like tennis rackets. Yeah, so even as a 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:37.960 tennis fan, it feels like more like a gimmick than 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.880 a proper delivery vehicle for all the red sauce I want, 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:42.560 so I agree with them. 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:44.880 I'm looking at this now it actually reminds me. I 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:46.520 don't know, I haven't thought about this in a while, 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:49.119 but like all the different shapes in the I probably 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:51.080 shouldn't be admitting this, but I ate a ton of 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:53.760 Chef Boyarty as a kid Mango. You know, all the 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.360 parents at were pull out those microwave Chef Boyardy all 0:07:57.400 --> 0:07:59.800 sorts of fun, crazy shapes. I don't think I remember 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:01.800 like a sports win, but this feel like it would 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.400 fit right in. Do you have a favorite shape of pasta? 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.320 I mean, my shapes are so boring. I really love 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:12.640 taglia and buccatini because they are just from times in 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.120 my life when they were comfort food, you know, like 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:18.240 when we started Metal Flass, I was working at this 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:22.080 Italian restaurant in Durham called Tusca, and the chefs used 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:26.560 to make me this incredible Spanish tagle itally and it 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:28.640 was just really wonderful. And so I think about that 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:28.920 a lot. 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.680 All right, mego, since you cleared up the noodles versus 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.199 pasta controversy, I'm going to open up another can of 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.079 worms here, which sounds like an avant garden noodle dish, 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.840 But I'm going to tackle the question of where noodles 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:43.520 originated and how they came to be associated with Italian cuisine. 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:45.840 So for a long time, there was this myth that 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:49.240 persisted that Marco Polo brought noodles from China to Italy. 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:52.199 This was back during the thirteenth century. Now, this story 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:54.760 spread after it was published in nineteen twenty nine in 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.360 the Macaroni Journal, the United States official trade journal for 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.520 pasta manufacture. I can't believe, after all our years of 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.960 magazine publishing, we'd never heard of the Macaroni Journal. 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:08.599 I know, I both want to see a copy of 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.120 the Macaroni Journal, and I also can't believe that the 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:13.319 distinguished Macaroni Journal made an error. 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:15.600 I guess they didn't have a strong fact checking team. 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:19.240 But weirdly, the Marco Polo story is pretty easy to disprove. 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:23.560 Decades before Marco Polo embarked on his journey, Muslim geographer 0:09:23.559 --> 0:09:27.360 Ali Dresi wrote about pasta being made in Sicily. Also, 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.200 noodles and pasta have been eaten for thousands of years, 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.079 so it's impossible to say for certain who invented them. 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:36.760 They hold an important place in cuisines across Europe, Asia 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.080 and North Africa. However, the oldest known direct evidence of 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:43.080 noodles does come from northwest China, where in two thousand 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.800 and five archaeologists found a four thousand year old bowl 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.360 of noodles. They were made of millet and had been 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:53.040 miraculously preserved in a sealed bowl. How cool is that. 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:57.640 I love that they found this like ancient tupperware with 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:01.600 like lunch leftovers in it. But tell me, if all 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.720 these people are eating pasta noodles, how did it become 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:05.960 Italy signature dish? 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:08.880 Well, Southern Italy grows a lot of Durham wheat, this 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.120 high protein wheat that makes dough that's easy to shape, 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:15.360 and pasta with a nice chewy bite to it. So 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:17.760 by the Middle Ages, pasta was an important part of 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.920 Italian cuisine, and Sicily was one of the world's largest 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:24.480 producers of dried pasta, But it was really a delicacy 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.160 for wealthy people. It was served at things like banquets 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:31.080 and festive meals. This changed by the seventeenth century, when 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.480 machines like the dough press made pasta easier to produce, 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:37.720 so at that point pasta became food for more common people, 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:39.560 especially since it was cheaper than meat. 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.240 I love watching how food filters down right, like peanut 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.920 butter was fancy and served at these elegant cafes and 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.280 things like that, And now everyone survives on peanut butter. 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:55.240 It's for the masses. But you know, pasta might be 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.520 easy to make, but it doesn't grow on trees. And 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.400 yet in nineteen fifty the BBC convinced a whole lot 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.920 of people that it does. So on April first of 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:10.160 that year, the TV channel aired their flagship news program Panorama. 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:14.040 But this broadcast was pretty unusual. It showed a family 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:18.040 in Switzerland doing their March spaghetti harvest where they were 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:22.520 pulling these strands of spaghetti from trees and according to 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:26.280 the voiceover of reporter Richard Dimbleby, this was a great 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.600 year for Swiss spaghetti harvesters thanks to a mild winter 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:35.439 and the disappearance of the spaghetti weavil. Wow, I think 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.640 it's just so funny. Eight million people watched this phony 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.280 broadcast and it said to be one of the first 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.280 times TV was used to play in April Fool's Day prank. 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:48.080 That is wild, but really, like, did anybody actually believe 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:48.840 this was real? 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.120 So many people, like hundreds of people called the BBC 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.040 to ask if they could buy a spaghetti tree, which 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:58.720 you know sounds ludicrous, But Richard Dimblebee was one of 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:02.160 the UK's most prominent reporters, so having his voice on 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:06.080 the broadcast gave it this real credibility. And the show's producer, 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.720 David Wheeler put it this way. Dimblebee had quote enough 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.679 gravitas to float an aircraft carrier. 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.280 So it's kind of like having Walter Cronk tighten on 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:16.600 your prank exactly. 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:19.160 And people also weren't eating a lot of spaghetti in 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:22.080 the nineteen fifties in Britain. When they did, it often 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:24.680 came in a can, so they didn't spend much time 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:28.120 thinking about where it came from. Plus the broadcast looked 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:31.240 really incredible. The BBC went all out. They sent a 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:35.080 cameraman to Switzerland. He got great shots of like fake 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.840 spaghetti trees and people gathering the crop to put in 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:42.600 their wicker baskets. It's really amazing. But not everyone found 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.280 the hoax funny. David Wheeler actually explained that some people 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:47.360 were embarrassed when they believed it, and their friends and 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:49.640 families made fun of them. Other viewers, of course, thought 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.080 it was hilarious either way. It has since become one 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:54.440 of the most iconic April Fools pranks ever. 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:56.320 I love it all right, Well, we have to take 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:58.360 a quick break but when we come back, here's what 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.560 we've got in store. We've got his prison escape, we've 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:05.360 got the world's rarest noodle, and Italy's pasta purity law, 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:06.480 so don't go anywhere. 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:24.000 Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're counting down 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.560 nine facts about Italian pasta. But we do have some 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:31.200 exciting non pasta related news, which is that we have 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:35.559 a limited quality of official numbered Part Time Genius membership 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:37.640 cards and we are going to send one to you 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.959 for free if you send us your name, mailing address 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.120 and one fun fact. The fun fact is important. You 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:46.800 can send us a DM on Instagram or blue Sky. 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:50.160 You can email High Geniuses at gmail dot com. That's 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.439 Hi Geniuses at gmail dot com. Or you can leave 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.040 us a message at three oh two four oh five 0:13:56.360 --> 0:14:00.000 five nine two five, and we will probably share your 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.120 fact on an upcoming episode, but we will not share 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:06.280 your contact infus. So that is a promise we can 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:08.839 make to our listeners and it's just between us and 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:09.760 the post office. 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.800 All right, Well, that's pretty exciting stuff. And actually what 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:14.439 do these membership cards do? 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:18.120 Well, First of all, they show you a member. They 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.040 also look cool in your wallet, on your bulletin board 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:22.960 or in a frame over your couch. 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.840 I mean, the options are so many options, and all 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:27.880 that for zero dollars. I mean it's a real bargain, 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.240 all right, Mega. Now that the self promotion is over, 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:31.440 I think it's time to get back to. 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.160 The PASTA great, what do you have, Froze next? 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.800 I've got one word. Casanova said, you know much about 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:38.120 this guy? 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.240 I just know you know this modern meaning as kind 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:42.040 of a ladies man. 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:44.800 Well, I think that's true of many people. And that's 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:48.320 a shame, because before Jacomo Casanova got reduced to his 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:51.640 dating life, he was really interesting. He was born in 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.440 Italy in seventeen twenty five, went on to have these 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:58.280 crazy adventures. He traveled all over Europe, worked for Frederick 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.760 the Second, was a spy, introduced the lottery to Paris, 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:06.080 and created a notable translation of the Iliad. All along 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:10.120 the way he hobnobbed with Voltaire, Catherine the Great, Benjamin Franklin. 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:12.560 I mean, this is kind of a wild background. He's 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.720 often described as an adventurer, which is a descriptor we 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:18.800 just don't see enough in modern times. But I should 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.400 copy out that most of what we know about Casanova 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.400 comes from his own writing, and so experts say some 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:26.360 of it might be just a tad embellished. 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.000 I mean, it sounds like he genuinely had this impressive life. 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:31.960 It's weird that he was like gilding his stories. 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.360 The point is this next anecdote comes from Casanova, so 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.120 take it with a grain of salt. But here is 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.200 what he tells us. It was seventeen fifty five, he 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:43.160 was thirty years old, and Casanova was sentenced to five 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.360 years in a Venetian prison for being a con man, 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:50.800 slash astrologer, slash gambler, slash a bunch of other disreputable 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:53.880 stuff in the eighteenth century worldview. So a lot going 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.280 on here. But luckily, in prison he has access to 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.480 a sharpened iron bar, which he then uses to start 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:02.560 chipping a hole in the wall of his cell you know, 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.520 Shawshank redemption style and everything. But as he's about to finish, 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:09.520 he gets moved to another cell. So now in order 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.320 to make his escape, he has to bring an accomplice, 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:15.640 a disgraced friar who's willing to keep working on the 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.720 hole in the wall. But Casanova has to get him 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.960 the iron bar somehow. So first he tries hiding it 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:24.120 in a Bible, but the book doesn't quite cover the 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.200 ends of it. So he fixes up this massive plate 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:31.200 of macaroni, parmesan, cheese, and butter to put on top 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:33.680 of the bible, and he hands the whole thing to 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:36.640 a guard to deliver to his friend. Now, the guard 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:38.960 is so focused on trying to keep the pasta from 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:42.600 spilling that he doesn't notice what's going on under the plate. 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:45.240 I have no idea how this would go unnoticed. 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:47.760 I know, instead of just asking for a bigger Bible, 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:51.680 right right exactly. I also love that, like inmates in 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:54.680 Italian prisons are just making plates of pasta whatever they want. 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:56.240 As soon as I saw that, it was like, so, 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.040 how did he have access to all this stuff? I mean, 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:01.440 if they didn't good solos, they might have been able 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:04.080 to do it in the old days too. But you know, 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:06.880 like I said, we don't have the most reliable sourcing 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:09.359 for this. And whether or not the pasta story is true, 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:12.479 it is true that Casanova and his friar were the 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:14.879 only people ever known to escape that prison. 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:17.520 How ridiculous would you feel if you're the guard who 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:20.480 got fooled by the old plate of macaroni truck. Yeah 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:26.960 under the macaroni. Well. Another important eighteenth century figure in 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.439 the world of pasta is Francesco Leonardi, who gets credit 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:34.040 as being the first person to combine pasta with tomato sauce. 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:39.320 Obviously genius, and this comes from his cookbook Lapicchio moden 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.800 or No. The recipe is called macaroni in the style 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.280 of Naples, and in the first edition of the book, 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:49.280 published in seventeen ninety, the recipe reads quote, cook macaroni 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:52.119 with water and salt, and when it's three quarters done, 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:56.200 grain and mix it in an earthenware terine with grated parmesan, 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.679 crushed pepper, and a sauce of veal or other beef 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.760 or a good broth from a stew, either plain or 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:05.119 with cloves strained through a sieve. 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:09.200 Now centuries later, that still sounds delicious, but he doesn't 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:10.159 mention tomatoes. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:13.440 Yeah, so history was actually made with the second edition, 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.720 which came out eighteen years later, and in that version 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:19.400 of the recipe, after the cloths and before the straining, 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:24.800 Leonardo added the groundbreaking phrase made with tomato sauce, So 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:27.560 that note changed pasta forever. 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.199 We all owe him a great dead Now, as long 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.760 as we're talking about noteworthy recipes, let me tell you 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.879 about the rarest most challenging pasta recipe in the world. 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:38.040 It's called Threads of God. 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.119 I feel like they plagiarized that name from my fashion 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.719 label that I'm starting, but I love how intimidating it sounds. 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:47.520 Well, it is intimidating. So the dish comes from the 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:53.160 village of Lula in Sardinia, where it's known as sufielin Deu. Now, 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.280 for three hundred years, only women in that region knew 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.080 how to make this pasta. The recipe was passed down 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:02.760 from mother to for centuries. As far as how it's made, 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.399 it starts with semolina flour made from local Durham wheat, 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:10.760 and they combine that with salt and water. Then they stretch, fold, 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.680 and loop the dough until it becomes two hundred and 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:18.480 fifty six individual threads that are extremely delicate, even thinner 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.800 than angel hair. Now, after this time consuming process, the 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.480 threads get layered to form a sort of a like 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.720 a woven sheet. Now, then the sheets get dried in 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.520 the sun, smashed up, cooked in mutton broth, and served 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:32.280 with cheese. 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:35.080 So I get where the threads come from. But what 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:36.600 is the religious significance. 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:39.800 Well, traditionally those noodles are only made for the Feast 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:43.000 of San Francesco. The dish was served to Christians who 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.359 made the pilgrimage to Lula for these celebrations. So it's 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:49.320 a special occasion meal, which makes sense given how difficult 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:51.840 it is to make. Now, I'm sure you're wondering, how 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.720 can I try this dish? But the bad news is 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.160 gorilla engineers once tried to build a machine that would 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.800 produce the noodles commercially, and it was a total failure. 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:03.320 Remember back to when they try to just make a 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:06.720 straight pasta ended up curly. That was always a way 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:09.280 too confusing. So the good news is that the women 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:11.359 who know how to make the threads of God have 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:14.280 begun sharing their recipe so that it doesn't die out. 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:17.439 There's even a restaurant in West Hollywood called Stella that 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:18.280 actually serves it. 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:20.360 Oh man, we need to make a trip. That's right 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.719 near the Daily Zeikai studio. That's right, okay. So I 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.920 am glad you mentioned Semlina flower because my next fact 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:30.680 is all about how Italy cracked down on pasta ingredients. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:35.040 So as ladies in Lula know Semolina flower is ground 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:37.639 from Durham wheat, and that ends up being the gold 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.560 standard for pasta. It's this coarse flower that's considered hard 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.320 because of its high protein content. But the truth is 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.000 you can make pasta from other types of flour, and 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:51.359 that's why in nineteen sixty seven, Italy passeda pasta purity 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:54.840 law that required all dried pasta sold in Italy to 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:56.760 be made with Durham wheat. 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:59.080