Norman Sicilia: The Origins of Pasta in the Crossroads of the Midieval Mediterranean

The history of Italian cuisine is the history of Italy. With millennia of wars, battles, shifting politics, dynamic trade, and often rigid, oppressive social structures, a retelling of this history ought to reflect this if it wishes to capture all of Italy’s complexity and nuance as a nation. In his history, author John Dickie does not shy away from the blood of the persecuted, nor the sweat of peasants. In fact, he fully recognizes they are vital pieces of information. Italy and Italian food are often thought of as uniform for the sake of convenience. In response, I’ve heard many try to push back against this and explain the differences between Lazio, Lombardia, and Ligûria. However, Italian language, culture, and yes food, when zoomed in further, differs from one rural village or city neighborhood to the next. Dickie’s quote of Walter Benjamin stood out to me, “[that] there is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” (Dickie 8). What we label “civilized” and barbarous, what we place upon marble pedestals or look down upon most of the time says more about us-our own ideas and ideals, beliefs, flaws, and biases-than anything of the subject of our judgement. This goes for me and my preconceived notions of Italy being born and raised in a thoroughly Americanized 3rd Generation Italian-American family, but also for Italy’s inhabitants today, looking upon their own history.