The Sauce That Survived Italy’s War on Pasta

February 9, 2023 7:17 AM

The Futurists tried to abolish pasta and all they got was this delicious dish.
posted by Etrigan (43 comments total)

I have, on occasion, eaten enough pasta that I've felt like agreeing with the Futurists on its merits: "the unctuous conciliatory rhythm of the sloth" sounds about right.
posted by sagc at 7:28 AM on February 9, 2023 [11 favorites]

Wild history tidbit! Eat Pasta and fight fascism!
posted by latkes at 8:25 AM on February 9, 2023 [15 favorites]

Butter to taste

That's a lot of butter.
posted by terrapin at 8:27 AM on February 9, 2023 [23 favorites]

“Pasta is like our rhetoric,” chimed in the fascist theater critic Marco Ramperti. “Only good for filling up our mouths.”

You've got to admit, that's pretty self-aware for a fascist theater critic.
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 8:47 AM on February 9, 2023 [35 favorites]

Anti-pasta? More like antipasto, am-I-right?
posted by straight at 9:12 AM on February 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Ah, the Italian Futurists. Has there ever been a more delicious blend of enjoyable art and fuck these guys? Perhaps not! It's like having one of Manzoni's cans in your larder. Don't get it confused with the garbanzos!
posted by phooky at 9:17 AM on February 9, 2023 [34 favorites]

Futurists embraced technology, war, and masculinity, while decrying museums, libraries, and many other long-held Italian treasures

Yeah, what a charming group of people.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:19 AM on February 9, 2023 [12 favorites]

I mean they're fascists, they're absurd until they're not.

And reading the recipe, I wonder - couldn't one use the pasta water instead of separate potato water? And I really hate trimming fresh artichokes of the bracts. What a waste of perfect butter dipping vessels! But it feels like you couldn't use pre-processed artichoke hearts because they wouldn't get crispy.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:00 AM on February 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

Fascinating. My mom who was a child in Italy during the later years of the fascist regime was recently reminiscing about the whole promoting rice vs pasta thing - they already ate a lot more rice than pasta in northern Italy back then because it was more available locally - but I'd never heard of the details in this article. Or of this recipe!

(And yeah fuck the futurists even though they did create some interesting art)
posted by bitteschoen at 10:08 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

This is fascinating.

Fascist futurism sounds oxymoronic until you realize that's roughly the same thing we have with the upper echelons of Silicon Valley in current times (*coughElonMuskcough*).
posted by splitpeasoup at 10:14 AM on February 9, 2023 [18 favorites]

La Cucina Italiana, a magazine founded by wealthy, fascist editor Umberto Notari and his wife Delia Pavoni Notari, had helped launch Marinetti’s war on pasta just over a year earlier.

*record scratch*

I don't think it's in print these days, but I used to pick up English-language print editions of La Cucina Italiana at a grocery store that stocked lots of Italian imports. Have gotten some great dishes out of those over the years. Huh. I mean, I'm not shocked, but I wasn't aware of this. This was really interesting.

*mulls over "Il Dente" joke to insert here*
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:15 AM on February 9, 2023 [7 favorites]

La cucina italiana is definitely still in print, and they're online too

I didn't know they were founded by fascists but then a good deal of things were started or built by fascists that still exist in Italy so I'm not surprised at all.
posted by bitteschoen at 10:22 AM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Imagine a world where something so trivial, so uncontroversial, becomes an object of hatred for fascists of all people! I mean, you wouldn't expect the people that the group responsible for millions of deaths would get worked up over something so universally beloved.
posted by PlusDistance at 10:30 AM on February 9, 2023 [17 favorites]

IDK that I believe that pasta survived because of this sauce. I think it's more that the Futurist threat to pasta is greatly overestimated.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 10:47 AM on February 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

La cucina italiana is definitely still in print, and they're online too

I knew it was still around online and in Italian, but for some reason I thought the English-language print mag had gone out of print. Maybe it stopped being distributed here in Canada, where I am, but not in the U.S., or something? In any case, I've gotten a lot out of it. It's also just quality food porn.

I think it's more that the Futurist threat to pasta is greatly overestimated.

I recall someone in my work lunch room saying "Ew, carbs!" to me (yes, that really happened) as I popped some leftover pasta to reheat for lunch at some point in the mid-2000s.

Not knowing this particular bit of history robbed me of the opportunity to say, "You know who ELSE hated pasta?"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:54 AM on February 9, 2023 [22 favorites]

Ah, the Italian Futurists. Has there ever been a more delicious blend of enjoyable art and fuck these guys?

I really love a lot of futurist art.

When I read about them and their manifestos later in life, it was as if someone sat you down and replayed your childhood books and TV, pointing out all the hidden swastikas in Winnie the Pooh, and all of the White Power symbols in Fred Roger's oeuvre.
posted by lalochezia at 11:45 AM on February 9, 2023 [17 favorites]

Nobody's said it yet so I will: that sauce looks freakin delish
posted by mcstayinskool at 12:06 PM on February 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Fucking Fascists.

I want my oven-backed Mac and Cheese!
posted by Windopaene at 12:44 PM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: leading to “laziness, pessimism, nostalgic inactivity, and neutralism.”
posted by lumosh at 12:51 PM on February 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Reading about the hydrogen economy on MeFi the other day reminded me that I read recently that about a third of humans produce and eliminate hydrogen gas in and from their intestines, and in trying to find out how much hydrogen a typical hydrogen-producing person might produce, I ran into an interesting and very surprising tidbit:

Starches. Most starches, including potatoes, corn, noodles, and wheat produce gas as they are broken down in the large intestine. (Rice is the only starch that does not cause gas.)

Is it just my imagination, or does fascism as an ideology seem unduly preoccupied with purity, and therefore also more than a little obsessed by the large intestine and its various effluvias?

Anyway, maybe they thought rice was closer to ‘cleanliness'.
posted by jamjam at 12:54 PM on February 9, 2023 [6 favorites]

They had to import most of their wheat, while rice grew in northern Italy. And sanctions were taking a toll on their imports, or so says the article.
posted by Windopaene at 12:58 PM on February 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

As we see all around us here in the US every day, when it comes to fascism, ideology takes precedence over rational economic considerations, and fascists would be happy to bring the entire economy down on their own heads as well as everyone else's if that would bring them to power, and I doubt Italian fascists differed much in that respect.
posted by jamjam at 1:10 PM on February 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

I kinda want to make Sugo Marinetti, but wonder how much the recipe would be affected by taking out the ham.
posted by Kattullus at 1:17 PM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

They had to import most of their wheat, while rice grew in northern Italy. And sanctions were taking a toll on their imports, or so says the article.

So… they were trying to make the grains run on time?
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:25 PM on February 9, 2023 [28 favorites]

Poi sono venuti per la pasta e io ho detto no cazzo.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:35 PM on February 9, 2023 [6 favorites]

This doesn’t feel too differently from how keto/paleo/gluten-free people talk about pasta these days. I often find myself on the defense for carbs against people who insist I must feel “sluggish” or suffer horribly from blood-sugar crashes after eating them.
posted by vanitas at 2:26 PM on February 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

What’s the Marxist take on pasta? Strozzapreti all the way?
posted by Phanx at 2:33 PM on February 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Here's Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto of 1909 (in English translation). It's absolutely bonkers, and predates his turn to the far right by a few years (although you can definitely see the seeds there if you pay attention). To be fair, even Mussolini wasn't a fascist in those days (pre-WW1 he was a member of the Italian socialist party).

Did I call Marinetti bonkers?

4. We declare that the splendor of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath ... a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace!

I think we've identified Patient Zero for recreational use of cocaine in Italy, right?
posted by cstross at 2:44 PM on February 9, 2023 [8 favorites]

Nostalgic inactivity is peaceful and if brought on by delicious pasta then so be it.
posted by kinnakeet at 2:46 PM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

The Futurist Manifesto is not only bonkers but it prefigures J. G. Ballard's "Crash" by sixty-four years. It really is a marvel. It may also be the earliest recorded example of a motorist blaming his shitty driving on a bicyclist. In the far future the manuscript will be enshrined next to the Ea-nasir tablet in the Museum of Human Grousing.
posted by phooky at 3:38 PM on February 9, 2023 [8 favorites]

Ah, the Italian Futurists. Has there ever been a more delicious blend of enjoyable art and fuck these guys?

I really love a lot of futurist art.

Same. Between them and Suprematism/Russian Constructivism I worry about the inherent political leanings of my artistic tastes.
posted by LionIndex at 4:07 PM on February 9, 2023 [7 favorites]

I have never purchased an anchovy, not one. I don't suppose Jack Mackerel would be a good substitute, or some expensive fish sauce? I am looking at that recipe and maybe smoked mussels could sub for ham. They would have to be heated on the side in shallow hot wine butter, um! Or should I say umami!
posted by Oyéah at 9:24 PM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

I've never liked anchovies on pizza, but I found that when one or two are added to a tomato sauce as in that recipe (or added to the sauteed veg) it melts into the rest of the ingredients and imparts umami without tasting anything like anchovies. Worth buying a small jar and keeping it in the fridge, but I think a couple splashes of Asian fish sauce (ex. Red Boat) would work well too.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:40 PM on February 9, 2023 [5 favorites]

Also, sauteed mushrooms - portobello or shiitake - would be a decent sub for ham.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:42 PM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

I kinda want to make Sugo Marinetti, but wonder how much the recipe would be affected by taking out the ham.
posted by Kattullus at 1:17 PM on February 9

I’d try any of these 4 possible substitutions: Turkey ham, turkey breast, or pastrami
or duck prosciutto. That last is the most expensive and difficult to obtain option.
It’s one thick slice of diced ham. That’s not a lot of ham. It might be fine with no ham or ham substitutes.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:08 PM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Jack mackerel would not work as a sub for anchovies. I’d use a splash of fish sauce.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:10 PM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

I think it's indicative of some of the incoherent opportunism of fascism that it can base its appeals for legitimacy equally happily in a rejection of tradition in favour of modernity, as well as in the exact opposite.
posted by Dysk at 2:12 AM on February 10, 2023 [4 favorites]

“the unctuous conciliatory rhythm of the sloth" sounds about right.

Also a good sockpuppet name.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:04 AM on February 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

And if the problem is buying a tin of anchovies - I would recommend buying a tube of anchovy paste (like the better option of buying tubes of tomato paste) or a bottle of anchovy juice. There's a reason they call anchovies "Italian MSG", they're in a lot.
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:08 AM on February 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

if you are feeling wary of eating anchovies try making a Caesar salad dressing with a blend of olive oil, garlic, vinegar (or lemon juice) and Dijon mustard (set the balance of these four to your palate). Then toss in one anchovy and blend.
posted by chavenet at 9:24 AM on February 10, 2023

If you want to read more about Italian fascists and food, I recommend Feeding Fascism: The Politics of Women’s Food Work by Diana Garvin! I saw Garvin talk last year and found the topic fascinating.
posted by spamandkimchi at 9:59 AM on February 10, 2023

I made this for friends for dinner last night. It is DELICIOUS! I’ve never had a sauce made like that before…kind of a liquidised mirepoix, and it was a massive success.

My notes:
- I didn’t bother with the potato water business. I just used water and some of the pasta water right at the end.
- I don’t eat meat so I left the ham out of the sauce and instead used torn long strips of Parma ham as an extra on top for the meat eaters. It was absolutely lovely without the ham.
- I made double the recipe quantity and it was good for 4 people and one child (who scoffed it to my surprise)
- I used tagliatelle
- for some reason the recipe has a 10oz can of tomato purée, you only need a few spoonfuls as far as I can see?
- I didn’t double the anchovies and that was fine. Another time I think I’d reduce the anchovy in the sauce a bit more, and have some small sections on anchovy stirred through in addition. I e same amount but only half in the sauce. I dis this with the capers and it was nice.
- I fried the artichoke hearts with breadcrumbs which gave a nice bit of extra crunch.
- I used a LOT of butter in the sauce and it was just wonderful
- it’s prettier than you’d think with the orange sauce and pistachios.
- I used a leek instead of celery.
- You could veganise it with olive oil not butter, and maybe smoky fried leeks? It would still be good I think!
- Unbelievably I forgot to put Parmesan on top but it really doesn’t need it, a massive umami kick already!

Treat yourself, treat your friends, anti-fascist pasta! Thanks Etrigan!
posted by tardigrade at 11:57 AM on February 13, 2023 [2 favorites]

I made the anti-fascist pasta last night too! Super delicious, although I agree, the instructions are confusing. I took the missing tomato instructions to mean you toss the rest of the can of tomato, along with the mirepoix, anchovies and capers into the blender. I did replace the ham with vegetarian 'ham' slices, but otherwise followed along. Incredible umami, yet vegetable-forward deliciousness!
posted by latkes at 6:17 AM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]