Chuck Darwin<p>Using methods generally employed to track the evolution and spread of plants and animals over time and across geography, <br />this paper aims to provide a scientific classification of "pasta ripiena"-- Italian stuffed pasta shapes <br />-- and how they spread and evolved across what is now Italy. </p><p>🔹From the abstract of ‘Evolution of the Italian pasta ripiena: the first steps toward a scientific classification’:</p><p>Our results showed that, with the exception of the Sardinian Culurgiones, all the other pasta ripiena from Italy likely had a single origin in the northern parts of the country. <br />Based on the proposed evolutionary hypothesis, the Italian pasta are divided into two main clades: <br />a <a href="https://c.im/tags/ravioli" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>ravioli</span></a> clade mainly characterized by a more or less flat shape, <br />and a <a href="https://c.im/tags/tortellini" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>tortellini</span></a> clade mainly characterized by a three-dimensional shape.</p><p>The introduction provides a short history lesson in stuffed foods:<br />The Italian pasta ripiena are part of a large family of Eurasian stuffed dumplings that similarly come in a wide array of shapes and forms and are known by many different names, <br />for example, the Turkish <a href="https://c.im/tags/manti" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>manti</span></a>, German <a href="https://c.im/tags/maultaschen" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>maultaschen</span></a>, Polish <a href="https://c.im/tags/pierogi" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>pierogi</span></a>, Jewish <a href="https://c.im/tags/kreplach" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>kreplach</span></a>, Russian <a href="https://c.im/tags/pelmeni" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>pelmeni</span></a>, Georgian <a href="https://c.im/tags/khinkali" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>khinkali</span></a>, Tibetan <a href="https://c.im/tags/momo" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>momo</span></a>, Chinese <a href="https://c.im/tags/wonton" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>wonton</span></a>, Japanese <a href="https://c.im/tags/gyoza" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>gyoza</span></a>, and many others. </p><p>It is unclear whether all dumplings had a singular origin or evolved independently, <br />or how the remarkable diversity observed in Italy is related to the greater variation present in Eurasia. <br />Based on linguistic similarities, it has been speculated that stuffed dumplings were probably first invented in the Middle East <br />and subsequently spread across Eurasia by Turkic and Iranian peoples. <br />Dumplings were known in China during the Han Empire (206 BC-220 AD), where archaeological remnants of noodles from this period were also discovered; <br />however, in the same era, pasta had not yet made its appearance in Europe. <br />The Italian ravioli have also been suggested to be a descendent of the Greek manti.</p><p>🔷And then moves on to stuffed pastas native to Italy:<br />In Italy, ravioli are probably the oldest historically documented filled pasta, <br />even though the early iterations of this dish evidently did not include the enclosing pasta casing. <br />Between the 12 and 13 centuries, a settler from Savona agreed to provide his master with a lunch for three people made of bread, wine, meat and ravioli, during the grape harvest. <br />Tortelli and agnolotti first appeared in literature much later. <br />However, the origins of the iconic tortellini are controversial. The long-standing historical feud between the cities of <a href="https://c.im/tags/Bologna" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Bologna</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/Modena" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Modena</span></a> over who invented the tortellini was symbolically settled at the end of the 19 century by Bolognese poet and satirist Giuseppe Ceri, <br />who, in his poem “L’ombelico di Venere” (the navel of Venus), declared Castelfranco Emilia, a town halfway between the two cities, to be the birthplace of tortellini. <br />According to this legend, one day, <br />while Venus, Mars and Bacchus were visiting a tavern in Castelfranco Emilia, <br />the innkeeper inadvertently caught Venus in a state of undress and was so astonished at the sight of the goddess’ navel that he ran into the kitchen and created tortellini in her honor. <br />Clearly, a product as perfect as tortellini could be inspired only by Venus, the goddess of beauty.<br /><a href="https://kottke.org/24/07/the-origin-evolution-of-italian-stuffed-pasta-shapes" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">kottke.org/24/07/the-origin-ev</span><span class="invisible">olution-of-italian-stuffed-pasta-shapes</span></a></p>