Comments on: Ferreti: a medieval instrument for forming macaroni

By: Giovanni

Giovanni — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:57:15 +0000

I was born in Calabria and I have seen pasta made many times with a Ferretti. In my Calabrese dialect ‘Maccarruni a ru Ferru”, or ‘Maccheroni col ferro or ferretto’. This method of making pasta is still employed today. Supposedly this method began in the province of Cosenza. At least that is what my mother tells me. She is from Consenza. I have never really verified this to be honest. I have always found that the handmade version of this pasta is more cooperative so to speak. Buccatini or other cuts of dried pasta in this style just do not want to listen to the fork. It makes for a little mess on your shirt.

I have to say that I really appreciate the article.

By: rogueclassicist

rogueclassicist — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 10:04:14 +0000

my mother-in-law (Sicilian) makes macaroni with ferreti … what most of the ex-patriots seem to use are the wires from broken umbrellas …

By: John Hudson

John Hudson — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 04:18:45 +0000

A Mediterranean Feast is full of such fascinating details. You have to love a cookbook that devotes so much space to a discussion of the cauldron and spoon as regimental emblems of the Ottoman janissaries.

There is, however, a feature of this book’s recipes that should, frankly, be ignored. In every recipe I have tried that calls for tomatoes, the instructions are to peel and de-seed them. This is an unnecessary fuss; worse, the seeds cannot be removed from a tomato without also losing much of the sweet gel that holds the seeds. This gel contains much of the flavour of the tomato, and throwing it away is silly.