Origin of pasta
Italian, Greco-Roman, Chinese or German, origin of pasta is unknown.
However, what one can surely state is that pasta has been part of the gastronomic inheritance since the most ancient times, in fact since men have been able to master cereals’ transformation.
Pasta of Alsace were probably born at the end of the 15th century: the first cooking book ever published in Alsace included a recipe of “Wasser Striebele”.
The name “pasta of Alsace” is important, as it allows one to make the difference between Alsatian and Italian pasta. These are made of durum wheat semolina, whereas pasta of Alsace recipes include “7 fresh eggs per kilo of superior durum wheat semolina.”
Pasta of Alsace have another particularity: they can be divided into two families, the Wasser Striebele family and the Nüdle family.
Wasser Striebele are made out of a liquid dough, pieces of which are dropped in boiling water. Spätzle and Knepfle form art of this family.
Nüdle are composed of strips cut out of a rolled out dough. This family includes the famous Nests, which can be of different width.
In 1671, The Abbaye de Lucelle’s abbot, Bernardin Buchinger, an Alsatian from Kintzheim in the Haut-Rhin department, published a cooking book entitled “Livre de cuisine pour les ménages religieux aussi bien que pour les laïques” (Cooking book for religious households as well as for non-religious ones). It is in this book that pasta of Alsace were first ennobled…
However, what one can surely state is that pasta has been part of the gastronomic inheritance since the most ancient times, in fact since men have been able to master cereals’ transformation.
Pasta of Alsace were probably born at the end of the 15th century: the first cooking book ever published in Alsace included a recipe of “Wasser Striebele”.
The name “pasta of Alsace” is important, as it allows one to make the difference between Alsatian and Italian pasta. These are made of durum wheat semolina, whereas pasta of Alsace recipes include “7 fresh eggs per kilo of superior durum wheat semolina.”
Pasta of Alsace have another particularity: they can be divided into two families, the Wasser Striebele family and the Nüdle family.
Wasser Striebele are made out of a liquid dough, pieces of which are dropped in boiling water. Spätzle and Knepfle form art of this family.
Nüdle are composed of strips cut out of a rolled out dough. This family includes the famous Nests, which can be of different width.
In 1671, The Abbaye de Lucelle’s abbot, Bernardin Buchinger, an Alsatian from Kintzheim in the Haut-Rhin department, published a cooking book entitled “Livre de cuisine pour les ménages religieux aussi bien que pour les laïques” (Cooking book for religious households as well as for non-religious ones). It is in this book that pasta of Alsace were first ennobled…