Pasta
Documentary series. Gregg Wallace is at the world's largest dried pasta factory in Italy, where they produce 150,000 kilometres of spaghetti each day.
Gregg Wallace is in Italy, hitching a lift on a train carrying over a thousand tonnes of wheat to the largest dried pasta factory in the world. It produces 60 per cent of all pasta made in Italy and supplies 3,000 tonnes to the UK each year. Gregg traces the journey the wheat takes through a seven-storey mill and into the production zone where it is mixed with water, pushed through moulds and turned into spaghetti. Along the way, he discovers that the perfect string of spaghetti is 25 centimetres long and examines the technology that allows them to produce 150,000 kilometres of it each day - enough to stretch round the earth almost four times.
Meanwhile, Cherry Healey discovers why the best pasta is made with durum wheat. This is a hard wheat that, when it is milled, turns into the granular yellow flour known as semolina, which translates as semi-milled. This is the essential basis of pasta as it retains its shape and texture when cooked. She also helps to harvest 15 tonnes of tomatoes, turning them into 3,000 litres of pasta sauce. Along the way, Cherry is surprised to hear that the British habit of pairing spaghetti with bolognese outrages many Italians. She learns why different shapes of pasta are ideally paired with different sauces and promises in future she will serve her spaghetti with a more suitable topping, like carbonara.
Historian Ruth Goodman discovers that pasta arrived in Britain much earlier than we imagined. She heads to the British Library to look at a manuscript from 1390. It is a cookbook written for King Richard II which contains a recipe for something called lozyns. Ruth cooks up a batch and is convinced that this is an early version of lasagne. She also navigates the streets of Soho armed with a 1958 restaurant guide to find out how we first fell in love with Italian food.
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Clips
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A waterfall of spaghetti
Duration: 01:05
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A shower of tortellini
Duration: 01:06
Music Played
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Felix Mendelssohn
Italian Symphony In A Major Opus 90: First Movement
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Dean Martin
Mambo Italiano (Club des Belugas Remix)
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Overture The Marriage of Figaro Symphony No 40 In G Minor K550
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Overture to The Marriage of Figaro (K.492)
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Nino Rota
8陆
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CHVRCHES
Empty Threat
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CHVRCHES
Empty Threat
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Little Mix
Beep Beep
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Milky Chance
Ego
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Federico Scavo
Balada
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Agnes Obel
Stone
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Agnes Obel
Red Virgin Soil
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Kygo
Carry Me (feat. Julia Michaels)
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Picture This
Let's Be Young
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Kygo
Carry Me (feat. Julia Michaels)
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Kygo
Oasis (feat. Foxes)
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Giuseppe Verdi
Rigoletto: Act II- Caro Nome
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Of Monsters and Men
Human (Glastonbury 2016)
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Eliza and the Bear
The Southern Wild
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Brian Deady
Clap Both My Hands
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Bastille
Good Grief
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NERO
Two Minds
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Eliza and the Bear
Natives
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Vince Eager & The Vagabonds
Yea, Yea
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Ken Mackintosh & His Orchestra
Crew Cut
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Tommy Steele
Come On, Let's Go
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Sophia Loren
Tu Vuo' Fa L'americano (From The Film "It Started In Naples") (feat. Paolo Bacilieri)
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Foals
My Number
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Kygo
Happy Birthday (feat. John Legend)
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Doves
The Greatest Denier
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James Arthur
Coming 成人快手 For Summer
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Daft Punk
Derezzed
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Ed Sheeran
Castle On The Hill
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Olly Murs
Better Without You
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Olly Murs
Better Without You
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Kaiser Chiefs
Hole in My Soul
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Gregg Wallace |
Presenter | Cherry Healey |
Presenter | Ruth Goodman |
Executive Producer | Alice Harper |
Executive Producer | Sanjay Singhal |
Series Producer | Amanda Lyon |
Director | Michael Rees |
Producer | Emma Pound |
Producer | Sam Bailey |
Director | Sam Bailey |
Production Manager | Sally Finigan |
Production Company | Voltage TV Productions Ltd |
Learn more about the history of the factory and how it has evolved with an interactive from The Open University.
The fascinating stories behind the production of some of our favourite products.