The History of Pasta

What's not to love about pasta? In my opinion, pasta is ,without doubt, the best food in the world. Pasta is such a versatile food. It can be eaten buttered or with a red sauce, cheesy, or just plain. Pasta also has many nutritional benefits. Often, athletes eat pasta for the energy boost from the carbohydrates found within it.
People have been eating pasta for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, no one can really say for sure where or when exactly pasta originated. Some people say that pasta came from the Chinese, while others, like Marco Polo, believe that pasta originated with the Italians. When Marco Polo arrived in Italy in the 13th century, he recorded that the Italians already had pasta. According to Marco Polo, pasta originated with the Italians, but the real answer as to where pasta originated stays a mystery, even today.
Pasta was also a very popular food in the Roman Empire from before the time of Nero. It was most likely widely used by poor families due the overabundance and low prices of wheat. Wheat also was a good food for the poorer people in the Roman Empire because the wheat could be stored in large bins for a long period of time.
On the downside, when the wheat was turned into flour, it couldn't be stored for very long due to it being infected with parasites, or ruined by mold. To stop this from happening, the people would bake the flour into bread. They would also make a dough out the flour, and roll the dough very thinly. They would then lay the rolled dough out in the sun, allowing it to dry. The ending product was sun-dried pasta. This form of flour could be stored for over a year, and eaten with all types of foods. This was very beneficial to poorer families, and very large communities.
Today, pasta comes in all shapes and sizes. There are more than 350 types of pasta. Most of these pastas also have more than one name. Many of the most popular pastas include: farfalle (bowtie pasta), spaghetti, penne rigate, fetticcine, chifferi, farfalle rotonde, and many many more.
Pasta has been a popular food for hundreds of years. No one is quite sure where, or when pasta was invented, but Italy or China are the most likely places that pasta could have originated in. Pasta provided a great help for poorer people because of the over abundance of wheat in the society. Pasta has transformed over hundreds of years from a simple flat shape, to a variety of different shapes and sizes.

Sites used: www.osiaglnw.org/pastahis.doc
www.archimedes-lab.org/pastashape.html