The History of Pasta

Ask someone what's their favourite Italian food and I am pretty sure that 8 out of 10 people will say 'pasta', with the other 2 probably going for 'pizza'. Pasta has become a synonym of Italian cuisine and people all over the world recognize it as a national dish. But is it really? Many people believe that pasta originates from Italy, but there are certain controversies about that statement. In this article I will offer you a short summer of the history of pasta.

If you are one of those people who think pasta is an Italian invention, then I suggest you sit down before reading the rest of this article, because pasta, in fact, is not Italian. The most widely spread myth is that Marco Polo brought the food back from one of his trips to China. But this is rather unlikely for two reasons. First, there is evidence that pasta was known in Italy long before Marco Polo went to China. And the second reason is that, there are actually some debates whether pasta was created in China at all. The latter debate arises from the fact that different people have different understanding of what pasta really is.

It is true that the Chinese were eating noodles long before Marco Polo went there, but the problem comes from the fact that many don't consider noodles to be real pasta. Generally speaking, pasta made of durum wheat semolina, while Chinese noodles at that time were made of millet flour.

So if pasta is one of the things that weren't actually 'made in China', where did it come from, then? The other version is that Marco Polo simply rediscovered something that was popular in Italy back during the Roman time. During that time, the Romans used to make similar noodles from durum wheat called 'lagane' (which later became lasagna). But yet again, the ancient lagane had just some similarities with pasta, and it can't be considered as real pasta, as we know it nowadays.

This leads us to the final, and perhaps, most accurate theory that pasta was introduced in Italy (more specifically in Sicily) by the Arabs. They took the noodles idea from the Chinese, but used to make the noodles with durum wheat semolina. The Arabs used pasta mainly in the navy, because it could last longer than other foods and it was very nutritious.

Regardless of the actual origins of pasta, though, Italy really took advantage of it and turn in into a significant part of Italian economy with major exports to different countries around the world.