Pasta Faggioli; Angel-Hair Pasta

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

PASTA FAGGIOLI

   Mayor Fiorello La Guardia gave this dish a big boost.  These are the only
early NEW YORK TIMES hits.

   15 January 1945, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 12:
_MAYOR MAKES PLEA_
_FOR PASTA FAGGIOLI_
_Bean Dish, Scorned by Rich,_
   _Loved by Poor, is Healthful_
   _and Economical, He says_
   The mysteries of pasta faggioli--a dish disowned by many prosperous
Italians, according to Mayor La Guardia, but loved by the poor and by Jimmy
Durante, who calls it "pastafazule"--were made public yesterday by the Mayor
in an effort to win converts.
   In his regular Sunday broadcast over WNYC, the Mayor told how Mrs. La
Guardia was cooking up a pot of "special OPA pasta faggioli" at the Gracie
Mansion, where they live. (...)

   16 January 1945, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 18 (Topics of The TImes):
   "Ordinarily," said the Mayor last Sunday, "with pasta faggioli you use a
ham bone or a slice of ham or something like that, but that is just out of
the question now."

   18 January 1945, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 22:
   _Beans a la Mayor_
   Mayor La Guardia's deiscussion on his Sunday broadcast of pasta fagioli,
the Italian bean and spaghetti stew, has prompted readers to request a recipe
for it.  The proportions are indicated here, along with the general method
the Mayor recommended:
      PASTA FAGIOLI
   Wash a cup of dried beans and soak overnight in two quarts water.  Cube
two ounces salt pork, saute till brown and add to beans.  Add four chopped
onions, a minced clove of garlic, a tablespoon salt, a fourth-teaspoon pepper
and a bay leaf.  Cook covered, two hours, or till beans are tender.  Add a
quart chopped escarole or celery leaves, and when boiling again, add a
half-pound spaghetti, broken in one-inch pieces.  Cook, stirring often, till
leaves and spaghetti are just tender.  If necessary, add more water.  Serves
six to eight.  Dish should be stewlike in consistency.

(We seem to have lost a "g" in the name in just two days--ed.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------
ANGEL-HAIR PASTA

   OED has no hit for "angel hair."
   Google has 66,300 hits.
   From the NEW YORK TIMES, 21 July 1949, pg. 22:

      _News of Food_
_New Vermicelli Cooks in 2 Minutes;_
_"Hair of an Angel," Italians Call It_
      By JANE NICKERSON
   Giovanni Buitoni said yesterday that in Italy they called a product like
his new one "capelli d'angelo--hair of an angel."  One in the food news
department described it less poetically as "the skinniest spaghetti I have
ever seen."
   It is vermicelli, much thinner than others on the market, and because of
its size extraordinarily quick-cooking. (...)