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Thursday, October 20. 2016

"Noodle" etymology


Depending on where you grew up, you might refer to noodle-shaped pastas as macaroni, noodles, or spaghetti. If more advanced, you might refer to the specific name of the pasta species.


In Soprano Country, they refer to that disgusting red tomato sauce for pasta as "gravy" as in "I'll take some more gravy for my macaroni."


Generally speaking, I am not a big fan of pastas. Peasant food! Packed with Evil Gluten! Well, a small primi of pappardelle with a (fresh) porcini sauce decorated with chopped parsley is very fine so I can make some exceptions.


I will admit to being a food snob when it comes to Italian. Pasta is not a meal unless you plan to run a marathon in a couple of hours. It can be a small primi but there are many sorts of primi. And cappucino is only a breakfast coffee. Italians do not eat meatballs. The best pizzas in the world are in America because we think a pizza is a meal, not the nutrition-free street snack that it is. I could go on and annoy everybody.

Posted by Bird Dog in Food and Drink at 13:48 | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0)

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This peasant loves the stuff.
#1 NJSoldier on 2016-10-20 14:15 (Reply)
No you do not. You love the sauce.
#1.1 Bird Dog on 2016-10-20 14:18 (Reply)
That'll teach you to think for yourself, NJ. And you haven't heard him definitively on air travel, the finest ocean voyages, the only hotels to sleep in, or how to make the only certified recipes for a few dozen dishes.

And it's all free.
#1.1.1 Ten on 2016-10-20 18:10 (Reply)
Not you Italian pizza argument again!
#2 Thud (Link) on 2016-10-20 16:12 (Reply)
When Trump is president, we shall all eat pizza with a knife and fork.
#2.1 JK Brown on 2016-10-21 10:46 (Reply)
It's your blog; with all that expertise you can be as annoying as you want.
#3 Ten on 2016-10-20 16:54 (Reply)
You don't need to go on, to annoy everybody. :)
#4 Aggie on 2016-10-20 17:50 (Reply)
You obviously have not had Braciole. Made correctly it is delicious!
#5 Stargazer on 2016-10-20 19:08 (Reply)
Hmmm. All the Italians (from the old country and those born here) I knew in South Philly liked meatballs. They ate them, too. Both brown ones and red ones. The red ones were found in that "disgusting" red gravy.

And macaroni with gravy was standard. Macaroni included spaghetti, although spaghetti was also spaghetti and macaroni were tube-shaped.

I guess we were just not as advanced as Bird Dog.
#6 OldFert on 2016-10-20 20:09 (Reply)
Penne with ragu sauce is great. I like ragu made with braised country-style pork ribs. Spaghetti noodles with butter and salt was one of my favorite meals as a child and I still love it to this day. Non-sweet carbs are the best type of food.

I think of heavy pasta dishes like lasagna as wedding food, not peasant food. It's something you eat on special occasions.

You can tell I don't have a drop of Italian in my veins because when I hear it called gravy it almost makes me not like it. Gravy should be brown and taste like beef or turkey.
#7 Jack Walter on 2016-10-20 21:45 (Reply)
Noooooooo. Gravy should taste like pork sausage and milk thickened with a flour roux. On biscuits or chicken-fried steak. Oh yeah.
Buttered noodles? Lasagne? Good.
Brown gravy on an open face roast beef sandwich, taste bud buzz!
All the elaborate Italian dishes and courses, not so much.
You never outgrow your upbringing.
#7.1 Clinton on 2016-10-20 22:50 (Reply)
The best gravy is red, made with coffee and is poured over your eggs, biscuits and grits.
#7.2 JK Brown on 2016-10-21 10:50 (Reply)
Such euro-eccentricities coming from a."bird dog". Bring on the meatloaf and mashers, hold the snobbery.
#8 pocono pamP on 2016-10-21 05:03 (Reply)
Don't think I can agree with you about American pizza being better. I lived in Milan for 6 months and I have never had better pizza before or since. The crust baked in the wood-fired ovens and the toppings - so fresh!
#9 eb knott on 2016-10-22 13:31 (Reply)

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