Pasta in Britain and America

An English recipe for ravioli appeared in the 14th century, while ‘macaroni’ with cheese appeared in cookery books from the Middle Ages onwards. At the end of the 16th century Sir Hugh Platt (1594, 1596) was recommending pasta as a food for the British navy and even showing a diagram (hard to interpret) of a piece of machinery for making it; see Thick (1992) for an excellent account of this and other matters to do with the early history of pasta in England.

From the late 17th century, ‘vermicelli’ (with a wider meaning than now) was often added to British soups. spaghetti was introduced to the English language by Eliza Acton (1849 edn of Modern Cookery for Private Families). In general, however, pasta was an imported food of only minor importance in Britain until the second half of the 20th century. Towards the end of the century pasta had become a true staple in Britain, especially for the younger generation who appreciated its convenience and relatively low cost.