Pasta ?

[bague25]

Last year, on my trip to India, I got some pasta, for my pasta-crazy daughter who just could not take her grandma's spicy cooking. I did not quite Like the locally made pasta since it just could NOT be cooked 'al dente'. I then went to one of the swanky places and got a packet of Italian pasta at a price that would give me an attack if I had a weak heart…

I wonder if sev counts as pasta…

Edited May 7, 2004 by bague25 (log)

[Episure]

Pasta manufacturers have now realised that 2 minute noodles and italian pasta are two different things.

Recent stocks reflect that they are using strong flours( durum) which dont mush.

[Big Bunny]

Monica and Rushina, please do post your recipes.

I have been away for a while. As I re-read my posts here, I hope that they don't seem too pompous. Theological analogies can be perilous.

I have really enjoyed everyone's response to my question. We all have our "absolutes", usually learned in childhood. For me, the taste and texture of pasta is an important one.

Of course, as I learned about Asian food, I came to love rice just as much. It is interesting that we generally agree that "this goes with (this) pasta" or "that goes with (that) rice", but exactly what the "chemistry" is remains elusive.

BB

[Pongi]

yes, you'd think keema curry (ground meat curry) would go well with any pasta shape that goes well with a bolognese sauce, but usually it tastes repulsive. strange since italian is the western european cuisine that looks the most like indian.

on the other hand, i can imagine some italian dishes--cacciatore etc. tasting quite good with steamed rice (not basmati though).

Actually some traditional Italian dishes (mainly stews) are usually served with boiled rice or risotto. The best known is Ossobuco alla Milanese, which is served with saffron Risotto.

As for fusion dishes, I agree with you, generally I don't like them. But Italy has many different regional cookings, and some of them share many features with Middle Eastern cookings. Sicilian cooking has been heavily influenced by Arabs (for example, it has its own couscous recipes!) and some of its dishes, most of all desserts, could be very suitable for an indian meal.

Pongi

[Guest nimki]

I often make macaroni and penne in an Indian style - rai seeds(can't remember the english name at this moment...its not mustard seeds i know), green chillis, onion, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, white wine vinegar, olive oil sauce, topped off with cheese. It always turns out very good though not the least resembling any traditional italian pasta dish?

my contribution to this indo-italian board.

[robyn]

things like pasta have more currency than traditional recipes, many of which are not making the generational transfer.

Why do you think this is happening?

I'm not Indian - but I like Indian food. And - although I've been able to put together a collection of acceptable but "dumbed down" and relatively easy recipes for a lot of cuisines (in other words - the kind of recipes I'm likely to make more than once every 5 years!) - I simply haven't been able to do this for Indian food. I had always thought I hadn't tried hard enough....

Robyn

[mongo_jones]

well, robyn, with the opening up of the indian economy to the global market, and with the arrival of satellite t.v etc. urban indians are being exposed to global cuisines in a manner not seen in recent indian history. for many indians pasta is "exotic" in the same manner that vindaloo may be to italians. however, the difference is that young, urban italians are not clamoring for indices of "easternization" whereas many of their indian counterparts are negotiating "westernization".

this has taken many forms. for instance, we've discussed on this forum the displacement of certain items on the traditional bengali wedding menu by more recent dishes such as the "bhejitebel chop". part of the reason for that too, i'd hazard (and probably did in that thread), is that the vegetable chop can also be seen as a marker of "progressiveness", and i'd guess it is probably in the middle-class and lower-middle-class banquets that it rears its head--these people are less likely to eat pasta.

noodles, of course, have been in india for a long time--and as people have indicated in this thread macaroni has been indianized in many ways (as i think about i too have a recipe from my mother for macaroni and keema). however, what's happening now in india is an emphasis on "authentic" italian pasta. you wouldn't have heard the phrase "al dente" outside the italian embassy in the 80s or even mid 90s. now it is a badge of culture.

i don't mean to imply that this is necessarily a bad thing or betrayal of "indian-ness" or whatever. indian food has always been a mongrel thing. pretty much any indian food "tradition" you can invoke can be shown to have emerged from fairly recent hybridizations (after all in the vedas even the sage yajnavalkaya--one of the two most revered vedic sages--talks of his love of the meat of the young cow). it is interesting, however, to see how these changes happen, how they get coded, and how they get talked about.