The Mahdi Times The Mahdi Times July 2014 | Page 92

PASTA: I bet you didn’t know modern
pasta was invented by Africans!
Records of pasta being eaten in Greece
and Palestine go back to the 2nd
century. It seems to have been widely
eaten all around the Mediterranean in
ancient times. They made it from flour
and water, then boiled and ate it
immediately. Italians still occasionally
buy fresh pasta like this (pasta fresca)
from small, local “pasta laboratories,” as
they are amusingly called.
The Carthaginians introduced durum
wheat to Sicily in the 8th century BC. It
was soon being exported all around the
Mediterranean. When the Moors came
to Sicily, they realized durum wheat
pasta can be dried hard. This makes it
highly mould- and insect-resistant for
long term storage and transportation. It
was ideal for their export business and
meant they could charge more for a
value-added, ready-to-eat product. It
also has the advantage of being ideal for
toddlers’ art projects at kindergarten.
They opened large pasta factories in
Sicily, particularly in Palermo and
Trabia, to mass produce this dried pasta
(pasta ascuitta), which is of course pasta
as we now know it. In 1154, Mohammad
Al-Idrisi wrote: “West of Termini there
is a delightful settlement called Trabia.
Its ever-flowing streams propel a
number of mills. Here there are huge
buildings in the countryside where they
make vast quantities of itriyya [pasta]
which is exported everywhere: to
Calabria, to Muslim and Christian
countries. Very many shiploads are
sent.”

Pasta is still one of Sicily’s major
exports.
Have you seen Tomasello pasta in your
supermarket? That’s made in Sicily, with
production in several towns where the
Africans first opened pasta factories over
1,000 years ago.

I have seen some claims that Marco
Polo brought pasta to Italy, inspired by
Chinese noodles. As you now know, this
is blatant poppycock. Written records
and archaeological evidence prove the
Africans were mass-producing it in Sicily
centuries before he was born.

CERAMICS: The Africans were
experts in multi-colored ceramic glazing
techniques. They brought master
craftsmen to establish potteries and train
locals in Sicily. They replaced the
ancient lead-oxide glazes with tin oxide
glazes and added manganese purple and
copper green to the color palette.