Brighid's Ogham Grove

My mother loved to cook.  Mum not only collected recipe books about international cuisine but also leaflets and hand-outs about new food products and new kitchen appliances.  Many of these leaflets date from the 1960s and 1970s. 

[Image ID: colour photo of the front page of the paper leaflet entitled “An Introduction to Pasta”, with strands of uncooked spaghetti across it.]

Here is a leaflet issued by the Dublin branch of Roma Food Products Limited, issued around the 1960s or so, when they were introducing a conservative Irish audience to PASTA!  Their catch-line was “Pasta is a most nutritious, versatile food, good for all the family!”  The leaflet included a questionnaire and the opportunity of winning a night out in Dublin, with theater tickets and dinner in town for four people!  Heady stuff in those days! 

[Image ID: photo of a printed page from the Roma Foods questionnaire.]

For me, the best thing about the leaflet is this funny little story about the history of Pasta!  I quote: “Romantic legends surround the origins of pasta.  The Greeks had a word for it, “Macaroni”, meaning “The Divine Food”, and a 13^th century king is supposed to have exclaimed “Ma Caroni!” [meaning] “How very dear!” 

“But here is the most delightful and exotic tale of all.  When Marco Polo traveled to the far reaches of the Orient, one of the handsome Latin sailors in his crew fell in love with a lovely Chinese lass.  She, too, was smitten with his charm and one day, while dreaming of her love, she failed to notice the leaves from a nearby tree drift into the bread dough she was preparing, until it was too late.  When she saw her leaf-studded dough, she wept bitterly.

“The gallant sailor arrived to find his loved one in distress and he solved her dilemma with ingenuity and speed.  Forcing the bread mixture through the narrow openings of a wicker basket, he strained away the offending leaves and left long strands of pure dough.  Delighted with her sweetheart’s resourcefulness, the maiden gave him some of the uncooked dough strands as a reward for his cleverness.

“Rations were meager on the long voyage home and our hero remembered the strands of dried dough tucked away in his sea chest, as a memento to that happy time with his lovely Oriental maiden.  He cooked them up in a pot of boiling water and, when he discovered how delicious they were to eat, he rushed off to offer a serving to his skipper.  Marco Polo knew a good thing when he tasted it!  After their return to Italy, he added to his reputation as a gourmet by introducing this fabulous new dish to Italian high society.  To honour his romantic crewman, Marco Polo christened this tempting delicacy with his name… SPAGHETTI!!!

“From this fanciful beginning, so they say, came all the pasta varieties… macaroni, noodles, vermicelli and the other fascinating shapes of dough that form the basis of Italian cuisine.”  (end of quote)

[Image ID: photo of page 2 from the Roma Foods leaflet.]

It doesn’t really matter if the story is accurate or not.  The point is that we Irish love a good story, whether we are the ones listening or doing the telling. Even better, when it is told over a delicious meal with good company!

Here is my own lacto-vegetarian version of Macaroni Cheese, which I refer to as my “Pasta Surprise!” because I use whatever left-overs I have and it is usually a surprise to my family and friends!

You will need any type of left-over cooked pasta, whether it is spaghetti, pasta shells, tagliatelle, etc. I always cut up anything long, like the spaghetti, into bite-size pieces. Mix the pasta with one small jar of ready made tomato sauce and one small carton of bechamel (white) sauce, or one larger jar of lasagna-sauce. It is OK to make up packet sauce mixes, if you prefer. You can be as imaginative as you like with adding vegetables, such as olives, or a tin of mixed peas and carrots, whatever you have to hand, so long as it is already cooked. I also like to add some grated cheese.

Mix everything together in a mixing bowl. Then grease an oven-proof dish and spoon the mixture into it. You could add a final sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top. Then bake on the middle shelf of a moderate oven (180 degrees Celsius) for about half an hour. Remember to heat the dinner plates in advance because pasta tends to cool off quickly! Enjoy!

More Irish Foodie anecdotes to come…….

Author: Veronica Smith, first published on 9th August 2024