To part 1 of the history of pasta When I published two macaroni recipes from World War I, I also added a page on the recent history of the production of macaronipasta. This page can be considered as the ‘prequel’ of that history section: pasta and macaroni from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century….
Pasta
Home Made Italian Pasta
The Italians are famous for their pasta. On this page you learn how to make fresh pasta, with eggs and without eggs, and for stuffed pasta like ravioli and tortellini. Asian pasta is also delicious. See here for recipes. And for those of you who are interested in the past, here are recipes for fresh pasta from the sixteenth century. And…
A brief pasta history – Part 1
To part two of the history of pasta It has happened to me before. I start working on a historical recipe that does not seem to be too complicated. But then the questions arise, one after the other … Long macaroni When I was working on two recipes with macaroni from the First World War…
Scappi’s Macaroni
Straight to the recipe A lot of work, but also a lot of fun The previous historical recipe on Coquinaria consisted of three parts: two recipes for macaroni from World War One, and a page on the production of industrial pressed macaroni. There is also a page with part two of the history of making macaroni and other…
Game sauce à la Bolognese
With leftover meat from making game stock When you have made a concentrated game stock, you can sometimes save enough meat from the bones to make a tasty sauce. I had six kilo bones of hare and deer. When I had strained the stock I had almost one kilo of cooked meat. Being Dutch, I wouldn’t…
Macaroni Pie
Straight to the recipe This recipe from the cookbook Allied Cookery is a lot like the oven dish from the Dutch Oorlogskookboek (‘War cookbook’): pasta, tomato, cheese, brown crust on top. This macaroni pie contains meat, as opposed to the vegetarian Dutch oven dish. This pie does not originate from the continent where the war was fought and where there…
Fresh noodles from Japan and China
People always think first of Italian pasta at the mention of fresh pasta. But many cuisines have a tradition of fresh noodles, sometimes with different ingredients or cookingtechniques. On this page you can learn to make your own fresh Chinese and Japanese noodles. The quantities in the recipes are but guidelines: eggs may vary in size, flour…
Tortelli in brodo
Straight to the recipe An Italian recipe from the sixteenth century This is a real classic from the Italian kitchen: stuffed pasta in broth. The sixteenth century recipe prescribes the use of meat broth. If you replace this by a good vegetable broth, the result is a very tasty vegetarian dish. It is best not…
Sixteenth-century pasta dough
Straight to the recipe Two recipes from the Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi Let’s all say it once more, loud and clear: “Marco Polo did NOT bring pasta to Italy from China!” Dried pasta was already eaten in Europe before the good man returned from his travels in 1295. According to some, pasta was already known to the…
Macaroni with tomatoes
Straight to the recipe From the Oorlogs-kookboek (‘War-cookbook’) from 1918 This is a Dutch recipe from World War I, also known as the Great War. The peoples of all the combatant nations dealt with hunger, food shortage and rationing (see here). The Netherlands remained neutral … The Netherlands did not participate in the war. At the…
Japanese bouillon for noodles
Asian noodles enjoy a worldwide popularity, thanks to the easily prepared noodles that only need boiling water. Japanese noodles can be eaten hot or cold. When served hot, the noodlses must be piping hot, and it is allowed to make some noise while eating them. The bouillon in which the noodles are served has two…