The History of Penne

Before the 1800s, short pasta styles were cut and shaped by hand. This highly precise task was traditionally done by women. However, around the end of the 19th century, new types of dies (perforated metal plates through which pasta shapes are extruded) were created that could produce the intricate shapes we are familiar with today. In 1865, Giovanni Battista Capurro, a pasta maker from outside Genoa, patented a machine that could cut penne without flattening the ends. (Before this, penne had to be manually cut with scissors and often had irregular ends.) Around the same time, mechanical indoor drying technology, such as the device invented by Filippo De Cecco in 1889, resulted in much shorter drying periods for pasta — the total dry time was reduced from months during the Middle Ages to mere hours. This made it possible to produce much larger quantities of pasta in multiple shapes. Along with penne, many other now-iconic pasta shapes were invented around this time as pasta production exploded in both Italy and the United States. Today, penne is one of the most beloved pasta shapes around.