How to Make Macaroni, 15th century

Tacuinum sanitatis casanatense

Sicilian Macaroni. Make a dough of the whitest flour, one egg white and rosewater– and should you be preparing two plates of it, put in only two or three egg yolks… these macaroni should dry in the sun and can be kept for two or three years; cook them in water or a good meat broth, and garnish them with grated cheese when you set them out on plates with fresh butter and mild spices. Boil them gently for an hour.

Neapolitan Recipe Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS Bühler 19 (trans. Terence Scully)

It’s a wonder these Italians had time for a Renaissance, given that fifteenth-century pasta had to be boiled for an hour.