By Georgia Kofinas
www.kerasma.gr
GREEK PASTA HISTORY
Pasta is a very old food in Greece, arguably dating to the ancient laganum, a kind of stone-baked coarse flour paste, which eventually evolved into what we know today as lasagna. The most common type of pasta is macaroni, a word that likely derives from the Greek, evincing the longstanding place that the concoction of flour, water, and salt has had in this country.
There are several theories as to the etymology of the word. It may derive from the memorial table of the deceased, called the “macaria” (“food of the blessed”), where homemade pasta was traditionally served, combined with the word “aionia,” which means eternal.
Some theories point to 474 B.C., when the Greeks from Syracuse established their colony in Napoli (from the Greek, Nea Poli, or new city), where they discovered the primitive pasta made by local inhabitants. They liked it so much they named this newfound food macaria, for the Greek word for happy or blessed.
Whatever the origins of Greece's pasta traditions, one thing is for sure: Greeks have their own philosophy when it comes to preparing and serving the world's most popular food. Unlike the tradition in Italy, where pasta is served as a starter, the Greeks eat pasta as a main course and most Greek pasta recipes are hearty and filling.
REGIONAL PASTA IN GREECE
There are dozens, if not more, varieties of regional pasta throughout Greece, defined both by shape and contents: Some, of course, contain eggs and milk, but most are a simple mixture of durum wheat or semolina, water, and salt. Whole wheat flour appears in a few varieties; soft flour is rarely used for making pasta.
As a general rule, hard or more glutinous flour is used to make eggless pasta, which is generally shaped into small curled cups, twists, and short, thick hollowed cords. With a few exceptions, most fresh pasta is eggless. Ribbon-shaped pasta, called hilopites and cut either into straight or curled strands of various lengths or small squares, generally contains eggs and oftentimes milk.
RURAL TRADITIONS
Like my neighbor's “tzotzeles” in Villia, all homemade pasta evolved from rural, often communal, traditions and relied on locally milled flour and fresh farm eggs and milk.
While some of that has changed, village women still get together to make their winter supply of local pasta, usually during the last weeks of summer when the weather is warm enough for the pasta to dry out quickly.
Women are still the keepers of Greek pasta traditions, but mainly they gather together in regional cooperatives to make and then sell an array of artisan pasta. Such coops now exist all over Greece, on mainland and island alike. They tend to produce a conservative array of the most traditional shapes, especially hilopites (small squares and/or ribbons of various lengths), rice-shaped pasta (kritharaki), and a few other traditional, popular types.
There are other trends on the artisan pasta front as well. In the last decade or so, small-scale commercial pasta makers have emerged throughout Greece. Many of these small companies also make an array of condiments and sauces.
One of the first pioneers on the artisan pasta scene, Christina Panteleimoniti, began making her own pasta in a shed behind her suburban Athens home and now, she produces a wide range of pasta, much of it traditional but much of it innovative, too, in myriad shapes and flavored with the likes of tomato, saffron, leeks, fennel, capsicum, red wine, black truffle, mushrooms and even ouzo and Greek brandy. In a nod to tradition, her pasta is dried out on special racks at room temperature for 5-6 days, thus retaining much of its flavor and requiring a shorter cooking time than commercial extruded pasta, a technique that enables the pasta to retain its natural flavor.
Several artisan producers are clustered throughout the Cyclades, especially on the islands of Tinos and Syros. At least one, Kostas Prekas of Syros, blends island herbs and Greek spices into his pasta.
Many of these artisan producers have seen commercial success and their products are now available not only throughout Greece but internationally.
Large-scale commercial pasta producers of course account for the lion's share of pasta making in Greece, and the industry here produces an estimated 151,000 tons of pasta per year, with two of the eight biggest companies accounting for about 75% of total production.
While the major companies produce dozens, if not hundreds, of shapes, both typical Greek shapes and internationally recognized shapes—from spaghetti of various widths to pennes, angel hair, lasagna and more—the trend toward more authentic, regional pasta has not gone unnoticed by the large producers; one, in fact, recently came out with a line based exclusively on traditional, regional shapes and varieties.
GREEKS EAT A LOT OF PASTA
Greeks consume an average of 9.6 kilos of pasta per capita annually, which makes them the fifth largest consumers of pasta in the world after Italy, Venezuela, Tunisia, and Switzerland. This number is based exclusively on sales of commercial pasta; there are no current sales statistics relating to the sale of artisan pasta or the consumption of homemade pasta.
PASTA IN THE GREEK KITCHEN
No matter whether the pasta is homemade, gourmet or the classic commercial varieties, Greeks have a long tradition of cooking pasta.
The traditional, regional table is filled with unique pasta dishes, but modern Greek chefs have also given the gamut of Greek pasta a few twists of their own.
The best-known Greek pasta dish is undoubtedly the baked pasta, ground meat and béchamel-enriched pastitsio. Versions of this dish are wrapped in phyllo pastry and even made with seafood instead of ground meat. Arguably the simplest, most common and sating way to enjoy a plate of Greek pasta is tossed or layered with browned butter or hot olive oil and grated myzithra cheese.
But there are countless pasta recipes in Greece and hearty meat and pasta dishes were and still are a mainstay of the Sunday family lunch. One such dish is the classic Yiouvetsi, a clay-baked pasta dish made with rice-shaped kritharaki and chicken.
Another favorite is the Ionian pastitsada, a delicious concoction of long, tubular pasta cooked with aromatic braised veal or rooster. There are variations of this dish in several places around Greece.
In the traditional kitchen, there are some interesting pasta dishes married with vegetables or beans. In Limnos, cooks toss their local flomaria (matchstick noodles) with cooked eggplant slices. In Crete, cheeseless pasta and vegetable dishes, which abound during Lent, are playfully called “orphans,” for the lack of meat and dairy. There is even a whole array of rich, sweet pasta dishes, noodles mixed with Tahini, honey, sugar and more, that was the traditional nourishment for nursing mothers.
In the contemporary Greek kitchen, especially in restaurants, pasta is a major player and Greek chefs are creating a whole new vernacular with it. The rice-shaped kritharaki might be sautéed and served with grated cheese and seafood in a timbale; one Greek-Australian chef, George Calombaris, created a grecophied version of Carbonara, using squid; others are making creative use of the many artisanal pastas on the market, marrying squid-ink ribbons with classic Greek seafood preparations, and more. The possibilities are endless.
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