Pasta Antifascista is pasta with butter and parmesan cheese. (Jiri Hera (Adobe Stock))

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While doomscrolling Instagram, I came across an interesting post about pasta during World War II. Of course it caught my attention. Who doesn’t love Italian pasta with a history lesson?

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the founder of the Futurist movement and later ardent backer of Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator from 1922 to 1943, wrote a manifesto claiming that pasta makes people heavy, slow and pessimistic. Mussolini adopted the belief that it was unsuitable for good, strong soldiers and his fascist government believed pasta to be unpatriotic because wheat was imported from abroad.

What were Italians supposed to eat instead? Rice. Rice was grown in Northern Italy but the campaign to shift Italians from eating pasta to rice made food shortages and inflation worse. Undeterred, they commenced a Battle of the Grain campaign with posters and government produced cookbooks with the slogan “Rice is health.”

Rice was grown in Northern Italy. (dp3010 (Adobe Stock))

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There may also be an American connection to why Mussolini had it out for pasta. He was from Northern Italy where, at that time, pasta was not as common. After World War I, many Italians from all over Italy immigrated to America. Once in America, they adopted pasta as part of their cultural identity and a symbol of the American Dream.

After the fall of fascism in Italy on July 25, 1943, one simple pasta dish emerged as the celebration dish of choice. Pasta Antifascista is pasta with butter and parmesan cheese. But why this pasta dish of all the pasta dishes in Italy?

Upon hearing that Mussolini was deposed and arrested after 20 years of his fascist dictatorship, the Cervi family in Campegine, about two hours from Vicenza, organized a feast to celebrate. They collected flour from their neighbors. A local baker, Amadeo Rapacchi, had a pasta machine that was used to mix the dough. The butter and cheese were purchased on credit from the local dairy.

One account said that the whole town came out with their forks and plates to join the celebration. Police came to break up the party because gatherings of more than three people were forbidden since 1931; they were invited to join and the party continued. Who can say no to homemade pasta?

This simple plate of pasta came to represent hope, freedom and resistance. For one night, the community came together thanks to the generosity of the Cervi family.  (Alcide Cervi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
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This simple plate of pasta came to represent hope, freedom and resistance. For one night, the community came together thanks to the generosity of the Cervi family.

Unfortunately, the terror did not stop on July 25. The Cervi brothers, all anti-fascists, were later executed by fascists. Alcide Cervi, the father, survived to tell the story of his seven sons. Today, throughout Italy, you can find streets named after them.

Ever since, public pasta meals have been held on July 25. The Istituto Alcide Cervi, a museum in the original Cervi house, has a list of all the places in Italy serving Antifascist Pasta and, in the spirit of the original celebration, Antifascist Pasta is offered for free just like it was on that festive day.

Make Antifascist Pasta at home. You only need a few ingredients. (nolonely (Adobe Stock))

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Want to celebrate like an Italian? You only need a few ingredients.

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