I really enjoy reading the origins of various recipes and many historians have different opinions on which country invented macaroni & cheese.
Many countries have a profound love and deep historical connection to a version of this dish – including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom,
France and of course Italy, where pasta was first popularised in Europe. But with a trail of clues pointing to the Alps, it’s possible that macaroni cheese’s origins may in fact trace back to Switzerland.
The word ‘macaroni’ has meant different things to different people over time. It appears in several old cookbooks, but none provide conclusive evidence of how, when or where the macaroni cheese dish evolved into the pasta bake of modern day. The International Pasta Organisation traces the word ‘macaroni’ to the Greeks, who established the colony of Neopolis (modern day Naples) between 2000 and 1000BC, and appropriated a local dish made from barley-flour pasta and water called macaria, possibly named after a Greek goddess.
Liber de Coquina, a cookbook published in the beginning of the 14th Century by an anonymous Neapolitan, contains a recipe for ‘de lasanis', sheet noodles cut into 5cm squares and sprinkled with grated cheese. While historians believe this is the first time that pasta and cheese appear together in print, it’s hardly the molten-centred dish we know and love today.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180130-macaroni-cheeses-mysterious-origins
Macaroni Cheese
The Swiss version has sliced potatoes and fried crispy onions.
Published in 1861
Many countries have a profound love and deep historical connection to a version of this dish – including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom,
France and of course Italy, where pasta was first popularised in Europe. But with a trail of clues pointing to the Alps, it’s possible that macaroni cheese’s origins may in fact trace back to Switzerland.
The word ‘macaroni’ has meant different things to different people over time. It appears in several old cookbooks, but none provide conclusive evidence of how, when or where the macaroni cheese dish evolved into the pasta bake of modern day. The International Pasta Organisation traces the word ‘macaroni’ to the Greeks, who established the colony of Neopolis (modern day Naples) between 2000 and 1000BC, and appropriated a local dish made from barley-flour pasta and water called macaria, possibly named after a Greek goddess.
Liber de Coquina, a cookbook published in the beginning of the 14th Century by an anonymous Neapolitan, contains a recipe for ‘de lasanis', sheet noodles cut into 5cm squares and sprinkled with grated cheese. While historians believe this is the first time that pasta and cheese appear together in print, it’s hardly the molten-centred dish we know and love today.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180130-macaroni-cheeses-mysterious-origins
Macaroni Cheese
The Swiss version has sliced potatoes and fried crispy onions.
Published in 1861
