The history of pasta

Do you know that almost 70 percent of people in the world eat pasta at least once a week? This includes the 59 percent who feed on pasta in the united states. Hate it or love it, it is almost impossible to have a weeklong diet that doesn’t include pasta either in the form of noodles, spaghetti, macaroni, and other pasta variants. After bread, they have become a staple in many homes, and they have become a cultural icon associated with china. They are a good source of carbohydrates, folic acid, and bits of protein and fat, and interestingly, they can be consumed in a variety of ways and with various side dishes.

Pasta can be prepared with fish sauce, meat sauce or tomato paste and in hundreds of different ways, but that is not what this editorial will be talking about, this editorial will be tracing the exciting history of pasta. If you are ready to find out where pasta emanated from, continue reading.

Depending on the part of the world you live in, you might have purchased several packets of dried pasta from your local store, and these bags of dough and water (the significant constituents of pasta) might have the name of the producer as a local or national manufacturer, don’t be deceived, pasta has journeyed from a different part of the world to get to the shelf of your local stores.  No pasta didn’t originate from your country, except you are Italian.

There are over one thousand documented names and several other forms of pasta worldwide, but irrespective of what these names are called in the local language, the original home of pasta is Italy.

As early as the first and second century, pasta has been mentioned in the works of famous Italian historians. They were not known as spaghetti, macaroni, or noodles as we know them today, but they were known as fine sheets of fried dough, and the inhabitants of cities consumed them as regular staples.

There was mention of pasta in middle eastern countries like Palestine, Israel, and some Arabic countries, mostly in North Africa and beyond. These nations were believed to have Imported their kinds of pasta from Sicily in Italy.

There is a version about the history of pasta that has made the rounds, and you might likely have heard this version before. This version suggests that the origin of pasta is from the far east. For many years many believed that famous explorer, merchant, and writer, Marco Polo was responsible for bringing pasta to Italy from one of his journeys to China. It is almost impossible to confirm how true this is.

Other popular stories told about the origin of pasta include the Arabian version; it is believed that they were the ones that introduced pasta to the Italians at the emirate of Sicily before the 10^th century.

The Greek also had their stories, about a certain god of theirs that made a device which is used to string dough, perhaps this was the first inventor of a pasta-making machine.

Many centuries after, especially in the 14^th and 15^th century, the dried form of pasta became very exportable, hence, its exportation to the shores of many countries. It wasn’t until centuries after that machines for producing pasta became popular in Naples. Afterwards, all over Europe from Italy to Hungary, pasta making machines began to pop up, making the spread of pasta globally very pronounced as the years progressed. There have been vast improvements in how pasta is produced, processed, packaged, and consumed across the world because of a several reasons from better machines to better recipies.

You can now enjoy the nutritious and belly-filling benefits of eating pasta either as noodle, spaghetti, macaroni, rigatoni, tortellini, or any variant of your choice now that you know the history.

In case you don’t know, Alfieri Alimentari is a pasta manufacturing company based in Piedmont and we offer a wide variety of pasta products like the pasta shaped ravioli, specially made Agnolotti dish and many other finger licking varieties.