The Elegant Art of Dining: Bohemian San Francisco, Its ... - iMedia

Paste Makes Waste
Tagliarini Des Beaux Arts
In an Italian grocery store we noticed a great variety of pastes in boxes arranged
Cook along one the pound counter of and tagliarini began in counting boiling them. water The twenty-five proprietor minutes, noticed then us and, draw
with a characteristic shrug of his off shoulders, the water. said: “That is but a few of them.
To We the have tagliarini not room add a to handful show them of mushrooms all.” In response which to have our been inquiry sliced regarding and fried
the number of kinds of paste made in by butter. Italians he said there were more than
seventy-five. Ordinarily we think of one--spaghetti--or possibly two, including
macaroni. Then add If three our knowledge chicken livers goes which a little have farther been we chopped think also small of tagliarini, and fried, which one
sliced truffle, is the Italian one red equivalent pepper chopped of noodles, fine as and it is a made little Parmesan with eggs. cheese.
In Make New a York brown we sauce were of much one-third impressed beef with broth the thickened stress they with laid melted on the butter serving and of
spaghetti, flour and and one two-thirds restaurant tomato went so sauce, far as and to pour advertise this dinners over the given tagliarini. “under the
spaghetti Sprinkle vine.” with It the appears Parmesan that cheese this is the and only serve paste very they hot from know a anything chafing dish. about.
After one (By eats Oliver, tagliarini chef or of ravioli the Restaurant one feels like des paraphrasing Beaux Arts, Paris.)
the darkey and
saying, “go way spaghetti, yo done los’ yo tase.”
Then comes tortelini which, like ravioli, combines paste with meat and spinach.
These may be considered the most prominent of the pastes, the others being
variants in the making and cutting, each serving a special purpose in cooking,
some being for soups, others for sauces and others for dressing for meats. It is
more than probable that the great variety comes from individual tastes in cutting
or rolling.
All Italian restaurants serve the paste as a releve rather than as an entree, which it
usually follows, preceding the roast in the dinner. As a separate and distinct dish
it can well be made to serve as a full meal, especially when tagliarini is prepared
after this recipe.
In San Francisco one finds both the imported and the domestic paste, and
frequently one hears the assertion that the imported is the better. This idea is
born of the thought that all things from Europe are better than the same made
in America. In fact the paste that comes from Italy is neither so good in taste,
nor is it so clean in the making. We have visited a number of paste factories
in San Francisco and have found them all scrupulously clean, with the best of
materials in the composition of the pastes.
One often wonders how the pastes came to be so many and how they received
their names. Names of some of them are accidents, as is illustrated by macaroni.
82