What Old World Europe countries (apart from Germany and Italy) have their own unique pasta traditions?
I was doing some research on websites and came upon a site where a German pasta company had been trying to sell their products into the US (the site is down, looks like the enterprise was not successful).
There is a list of their pasta types given: Fadennudeln, Schnittnudeln, Bandnudeln, Walznudeln, Nudelnester, Drelli, Spiralen, Makkaroni, Knoepfle, Bauern Spaetzle.
Apart from learning the meaning of the name "Knopfler", I was very surprised to find such a range of pasta with specialized names coming from Germany. I have eaten pasta in Germany, but never before realized that they have their own "pasta tradition".
Being English, with a pasta tradition imported from Italy, I am wondering if other countries apart from Germany and Italy have their own "pasta traditions"? I am thinking Old World Europe; of course the USA has its local variations, but they are not what I am looking for. My focus is on a unique noodle version.
Best Answer
I can think of several Polish noodle types.
- Uszka - shaped like tortellini, filled with mushrooms. Usually served in soup.
- Kopytka - made of flour, potatoes and eggs. The composition is basically the same as gnocchi, but they're formed differently: you roll the dough into a rope the size of your thumb, then cut it into pieces diagonally.
- Kluski lane ("poured noodles") - a thin egg and flour dough that's drizzled into boiling water. Usually served in soup. Similar to spaetzle.
- Pierogi - a round piece of dough that's folded around a lump of filling, making a semi-circular shape. The filling can be a number of things. The most popular one is a mixture of potatoes and farmer cheese - "pierogi ruskie". They can also be filled with ground meat, cabbage, or fruit.
- ?azanki - flat square pieces of pasta, less than an inch wide. Usually mixed with sauerkraut, mushrooms, and optionally sausage or salt pork. The name is probably derived from lasagna.
- Knedle - these are eaten in Poland, but I think they're originally from Hungary. It's a ball of potato dough (similar to kopytka, above) with a plum in the center.
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What country invented pasta?
While some historians believe pasta originated in Italy, most are convinced Marco Polo actually brought it back from his epic voyage to China. The earliest known pasta was made from rice flour and was common in the east. In Italy, pasta was made from hard wheat and shaped into long strands.Where did Italian pasta originate?
PastaA collection of different pasta varietiesTypeStaple ingredient for many dishesPlace of originItalyMain ingredientsDurum wheat flourIngredients generally usedWater, sometimes eggs2 more rowsWhat culture eats pasta?
Countries that consume the most pasta are Italy, followed by Tunisia, Venezuela, Greece, Chile, and the United States.Is pasta Italian culture?
For starters, pasta has a deeply rooted history in Italian culture. Starting in the Middle Ages, the first professional Italian pasta shops began popping up in Southern Italy. Slowly, Italians were able to export pasta all over the world, and soon there were large-scale pasta factories in Naples, Genoa, and Salerno.The Extraordinary Origin and History of Italian Spaghetti | Visititaly.eu
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Answer 2
Spaetzle are pretty unique as pastas go--they're almost dumplings--and it shouldn't be hard to find recipes.
Beyond that, I'd look to Asia for true variations on noodles that aren't just shape variations of the standard semolina noodle or egg noodle.
Answer 3
In Turkey you have an interesting type of (I would call them) ravioli, at any rate stuffed pasta called manti, and I have not seen anything quite like it elsewhere.
Answer 4
On the Balkans, there is yufka
. Don't let yourself be fooled, this is a Turkish word meaning a type of bread, but in Bulgaria, ex-Yugoslavia (and I think Romania too), it is used for a type of noodle.
For this noodle, you make a dough like you would for a banitsa
(this is a dish similar to a strudel). It only has wheat flour (not semolina) and water. Then you roll it out in flour until it is transparent (~0.3 mm). The sheet is first dried in the air for some days, then baked a bit. The drying and baking makes it crack, resulting in irregular scales. The picture shows the dried yufka.
The prepared noodles are cooked in water and usually served with feta cheese and butter.
BTW, I don't think that there is much of a noodle tradition in Germany. Germans eat lots of pasta today, and most of it is indeed produced locally, but I think that they have (except for Spätzle) imported and simplified the Italian custom, probably in more recent times. In Germany, you get practically two types of noodles - Hartweizennudeln
, noodles made with 100% durum semolina (the Italian type), and Eiernudeln
, noodles with eggs added to the dough (not sure if they are always made with durum, Spätzle usually isn't). The rest of the terms just denotes different shapes of noodles, but unlike Italy, there are no rules for which noodles go with which kind of sauce. The different shapes are just used interchangeably by German cooks.
Some Germans could tell you that they have a different type of noodle, called Maultaschen
. This is something of a border case, but I consider it to be a dumpling, not a noodle. On the other hand, it could be argued that if ravioli are a noodle, then Maultaschen are a noodle too. Either way, Maultaschen are traditional food from Schwaben.
Answer 5
Hungary has a unique (as far as I know) noodle speciality, called "galuska" or "nokedli" (see photo). They are often compared to either the swab "Knöpfle" or the swab "Spätzle", which can be an approximation only, since they taste very different and are, all in all, absolutely distinct (see my comment below)! Therefore the Hungarian Wikipedia entry is the best resource to learn about them. These also come in varieties, with sheep quark cheese in the dough, for example, called Sztrapacska then, also part of Slowakian national cuisine.
Another, typical, Hungarian (and Slowak) noodle is "tarhonya". These are small noodles, which get sautéed in a little oil or bacon, before getting cooked in boiling water (or right into the dish, they are being made for, so they get cooked along with it).
Besides this, Hungarians have a lot of pasta types, just as the Germans. And no, these are not italian style pasta, these are distinct, just as the German's.
By Kobako (photo taken by Kobako) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
Answer 6
Tiny rice grain shaped noodles (Kritharaki/Orzo) are often found in greek and turkish dishes, even though an italian adaptation (Risoni) seems to exist.
Answer 7
From France :
- Raviole du Dauphiné, some kind of small ravioli,
- Crozets de Savoie, a small flat square-shaped pasta
- Spätzle, also made in the north-east of France
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