Anything baked in a cheesy béchamel sauce is regarded as comfort food, and there’s nothing more comforting than the good ol’ classic macaroni and cheese.

But where did the dish originate?

It comes across as very American, doesn’t it?

Well, although the use of macaroni might lead you to believe the dish has Italian origins (even there you would be wrong), it’s possible macaroni and cheese is a Swiss invention, sometimes called Älplermagronen, reports BBC:

The dish, which translates to ‘Alpine herder’s macaroni’, is ubiquitous on restaurant menus from Appenzell to Zermatt. And, as most Swiss will tell you, it tastes better when you’ve earned it, as I had hiking that morning.

Älplermagronen is usually made with elbow macaroni, locally called magronen or hörni, because it’s shaped like the horns of native chamois and ibex. The pasta dish is fortified with cream and gooey melted cheese – often AOP-protected Gruyère from western Switzerland, but sometimes local alpine cheeses made from cows grazing the very same mountain it is served on.

Dry pasta is light to carry; cheese [the shepherd] made himself. So here in Switzerland, there’s a logistical reason behind this simple dish.

It’s also referred to as ‘Macaroni du Chalet’ in French-speaking Switzerland, and varies from canton to canton (cantons are the Swiss versions of states or provinces).

Sometimes, it can contain thin slivers of potato, smoky bacon or ham, and comes topped with fried onions. Other times, you might find yourself being offered a side of cold apple sauce to cut through the stodginess of the dish.

But while there isn’t definitive evidence that points to the Swiss as the dish’s inventor, there are trails of clues that link it to the Alps:

Many countries have a profound love and deep historical connection to a version of this dish – including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and of course Italy, where pasta was first popularised in Europe.

Americans especially love to claim macaroni cheese as their own, and indeed Kraft invented the boxed version using macaroni in 1937 at the height of the Great Depression, helping popularise it worldwide. But neither cheese nor macaroni were invented in the US, and tracing the dish takes us back centuries and to several accounts about its possible origins.

The word ‘macaroni’ has meant different things to different people over time. It appears in several old cookbooks, but none provide conclusive evidence of how, when or where the macaroni cheese dish evolved into the pasta bake of modern day.

The International Pasta Organisation traces the word ‘macaroni’ to the Greeks, who established the colony of Neopolis (modern day Naples) between 2000 and 1000BC, and appropriated a local dish made from barley-flour pasta and water called macaria, possibly named after a Greek goddess.

You can follow the rest of the dish’s long history here.

Oh, and regarding the whole Italians invented pasta saga, get this:

Pasta itself is neither Swiss nor European in origin; it dates to at least 3500BC in Japan and China, likely spreading to the Middle East and northern Africa via the Silk Road. Some scholars believe that that 7th-Century nomadic Arabs then likely brought it with them while travelling from Libya to Sicily, from where it spread north along the Italian peninsula.

I’ve learned one thing today, so why not keep going?

If you have ever wondered how best to make the cheesy dish, you might be interested to know that local meal delivery service Daily Dish has two versions – one with bacon, one without:

Then you refrigerate, cut into tasty bites, roll in some divine crumb and deep fry, baby.

Want to take all the hassle out of cooking? Once a week, Daily Dish delivers everything you need to cook four delicious dinners – including the recipes and exact quantities of all the ingredients.

Dishes are designed to be easy to cook, and take about 30 minutes from start to finish. Yay.

There are five sets of menus available: Banting, Family, Classic, Veggie, Goodie and Pork Free boxes. Once you have made your decision, four meals for the week are delivered to your door (at work or home) every Monday between 8AM and 5PM.

And the ingredients? The highest quality, fresh, seasonal, local, and sustainably produced.

Pop over here to find out more.

[source: bbc]