Flavors of the North End: Pasta
Four stories of the North End’s signature staple: where pasta came from, how it became Italian-American, the Prince Street company that put macaroni in every American pantry, and the beans that made Boston “Beantown”.
Jump to a story: The Common Bond · From Italian to Italian-American · The Story of Prince Pasta · Boston Baked Beans
Pasta: The Common Bond of Italian Cuisine
Pasta has been enjoyed in Italy for a very long time, centuries before the myth that Marco Polo introduced it from China. There were also pasta-like foods going back to the Romans and Etruscans, but these dishes were not typically prepared the same way as what we consider pasta today. Pasta is the general term, but in the North End, you may hear the word “macaroni” used, which technically relates to elongated pasta shapes like penne, ziti, and of course, elbow macaroni.
Pasta as we know it today most likely began in the 8th century when Arab invaders brought hard durum wheat to Sicily. The Arabs also brought irrigation technology to grow this hard wheat, which was made into early forms of pasta, similar to couscous. This legacy can still be enjoyed in Eastern Sicily in the traditional Cùscusu alla Trapanese.
Pasta is one of the most versatile foodstuffs, with a long shelf life and relatively inexpensive. It showed up as an ingredient in some of the earliest English cookbooks and had a small presence in colonial times. In a quirk of early American history, the term macaroni has a Boston connection long before the great “sauce versus gravy” debate.
Stuck a Feather in his Hat and Called it…
It is ironic that a food associated with the poorest of Italians became associated in the English speaking world with the upper classes. A macaroni or “macaroni-eater” was someone of wealth who visited Italy as part of the Grand Tour, and ate Italian pasta. Macaronis took their garish clothing, effeminate mannerisms, and expensive tastes to such extremes that the term became one of ridicule.
The lyrics to “Yankee Doodle” echo this old concept of a macaroni as a “dandy.” By the time of the Revolution, the culture gap between England and the Colonies was widening. British soldiers sang “Yankee Doodle” to mock their American cousins starting as early as 1755. They considered Yankees little better than country bumpkins with their quaint notions of high fashion. However the lyrics was also a less than subtle jab at the masculinity of the Colonial militias. General Washington and the fledgling Continental Army proved there was nothing “macaroni” about these Yankees when the British evacuated Boston in embarrassing fashion, March 17, 1776.
Pasta in Boston
“Maccaroni, like many other new-fangled notions, is far-fetched and dear-bought” -The Weekly Novelette (Boston): July 10, 1858
Pasta’s arrival in Boston predates the arrival of the first wave of Italian immigrants by decades and was considered a bit of a luxury import at first. Dried Italian pasta was being imported along with goods from all over the world as the Boston waterfront expanded. The Boston Post of the early 1830s routinely announced crates of “Italian Vermicelli and Macaroni” for sale on the Boston wharves. Recipes of the time call for what we would consider overcooked pasta to create dishes similar to today’s macaroni and cheese.
Naturally it would take the arrival of Italians, starting with the Genovese in the 1860s, before this exotic import became more commonplace. Waves of Southern Italians and Sicilians starting in the late 19th century, made pasta better known and more available to the larger population. They cooked pasta al dente, and showed Americans how New World tomatoes, once thought by Europeans to be poisonous, could be turned into today’s well-known red sauces (gravy).
Both fresh and dried pasta, were and still are, made at home, especially for special occasions like a saint’s feast day. However homemade pasta is more for short term consumption. To be a long lasting pantry staple, dried pasta (pasta secca) requires a slow drying process beyond the usable space in a typical North End tenement.
The growing list of Italian grocers and importers all supplied various types of macaroni products to North End families. It was only a matter of time before Italian entrepreneurs seized on this huge, concentrated demand for pasta and began commercial pasta companies.
Pasta: From Italian to Italian-American
Many native Italians openly comment on how Italian-American cuisine goes overboard on the use of garlic, the size of meatballs, and the overabundance of sauce. While some of these criticisms have merit, what is misunderstood is how this happened.
The best of Italian cuisine has been shaped by struggle and poverty, making the most out of what ingredients you had on hand. Suddenly immigrants to the North End found themselves a short walk away from more meat, fruit and vegetables than they could ever imagine. The struggle was still real, and times were lean, but Italian mothers found themselves able to feed their large families much better than back home.
Now families could afford to make meatballs, and roasts beyond just a couple times per year. They could buy and make more food, with better ingredients, for less money and they took advantage. Within a generation, many Italian families were proud they could now have traditional Italian food with American sized portions. New ingredients were incorporated and more and more English terms began to replace regional dialects. The replacement of sugo, salsa, or ragu for the English “gravy” or “sauce” is a poignant example of how Italian-American culture is often a balancing act.
American-Italian Spaghetti?
In the 20th century, pasta was being slowly discovered by the larger American population. Recipes of varying quality for spaghetti, macaroni, and vermicelli began to be published in Boston newspapers. This early recipe aimed at an American audience shows how Old World traditions adapted to a new audience. In this example, notice the suggestion that garlic could be used with “reckless impunity.”
“Italian Spaghetti - Chop a pound of bacon very fine. Put it into a stew pan with a quart of water, a liberal dash of paprika, a clove of garlic, half a can of tomatoes or a full can of the tomato paste to be found in any Italian grocery. Simmer for half an hour, remove the clove of garlic, add paint to the blanched spaghetti. Set the stew pan on the slow fire or in a moderate oven and let it stand till the paste has absorbed the gravy. Those who object to garlic may use finely chopped onions but in either tomatoes or spaghetti garlic may be used with reckless impunity, and it gives a delicious flavor, which is like no other.”
-Boston Globe, December 3, 1900
The Story of Prince Pasta
In 1912 Gaetano LaMarca, Giuseppe Seminara, and Michele Cantella, three Sicilian immigrants formed a pasta making company in the North End. Starting from a storefront at 92 Prince Street, with little more than some baking equipment, a horse and cart, they created one of America’s most recognizable food brands. In 1917 the Company had grown to the point where they built a large modern pasta factory on Commercial Street. The former freight line along Atlantic Avenue connected to the factory and supplied the tons of wheat needed to make Prince a household name.
Prince Macaroni Manufacturing Company stayed in the North End, making their signature products until moving to Lowell in 1941. The Company was still identified with the North End thanks to an iconic long-running TV commercial. For decades a North End mother bellowed through the TV for her son, Anthony Martignetti, to come home, running through the neighborhood for “Prince Spaghetti Day.”
Boston Baked Beans: A True Yankee Legacy
“TO BE SOLD by Thomas Hutchinson, Esq. Choice white Beans, black ey’d Pease, and Lisbon Salt, at his Warehouse on his Wharffe, adjoyning Clark’s Shipyard at the North End.”
- Boston Gazette March 6, 1737
Bostonians hate the name “Beantown”, but the City earned the moniker with good reason. The aroma of beans and molasses would have washed over the North End every weekend when the neighborhood was primarily made up of descendants of Puritan settlers.
Beans were an important crop for the local Massachusett peoples, and part of the “three sisters” of indigenous agriculture. There is a local legend that the Native Americans taught the Puritans how to make an early form of baked beans. However this may be a modern myth created in the 19th century, since the earliest versions of the story seem to date from that time. What we know today as Boston baked beans may have more to do with adapting old traditions to new ingredients and trade networks.
The Puritans brought food traditions that were hardly changed from the Late Medieval period. Very few vegetables were consumed raw, most were cooked for long periods of time in earthenware, with bits of meat or seafood. These were known as pottages, and were consumed by all social classes using ingredients befitting their status.
Some New World crops like beans and potatoes were adopted fairly quickly in Europe as part of the Columbian Exchange. Pottages made in part with New World bean varieties were already known in England, but Boston baked beans required two other essential ingredients.
Boston’s growing maritime trade required mountains of provisions, and barrels of salted pork were inexpensive and long-lasting. Pigs were introduced by the first colonist and along with the growth of Boston as a market town, led to an abundance of affordable meat products. The old style bean pottage could now be fortified with a healthy amount of pork, even for lower classes.
The final key ingredient is molasses, which was being imported into Boston by the millions of gallons by the late 18th century. This influx of molasses was due to the growing Triangle Trade with Caribbean sugar plantations. The cheap and nutritious byproduct was utilized in various ways: for rum, to flavor beans, and also to make the traditional brown bread served with Boston baked beans.
Saturday Night Bean Supper
Hearth cooking required planning ahead to cook different foods at the right temperature. A crock of baked beans would cook for hours in the hearth or in purpose-made brick ovens. This would not only allow for a traditional Saturday night bean supper, but the residual heat of the hearth would keep the beans warm overnight for Sunday morning.
Tradition says this was a time and labor saving device for Puritans, who were mandated to attend church on the Sabbath. Regardless of accuracy, it certainly proved to be practical and delicious, long after modern kitchens were adopted. The Sunday morning beans were often paired with fishcakes made from salt or fresh cod. Fishcakes and beans is still a popular breakfast, found on breakfast menus throughout New England and the Canadian Maritimes.