When and where was pasta first made?

Question

When and where was pasta first made?

Answer 1

use google

Answer 2

i agree with the above 2 answers

Answer 3

The Chinese did not use the word pasta which is Italian.  However the oldest form of this noodle has been unearthed in an overturned, sealed bowl at an archaeological site in Lajia (northwestern China). The bowl was buried under ten feet of sediment.

Unlike our semolina pasta, these noodles were made from two varieties of millet which was highly cultivated throughout Chinese history, dating back 7000 years .

"This shows a fairly high level of food processing and culinary sophistication," stated archaeochemist Patrick McGovern at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.

While this gives evidence of the long Chinese history, the pasta we have eaten throughout western history  still must have been introduced into western diets through the Arabs and their travels.

Answer 4

wikusdp is correct except for the orign of the word pasta.  It is Latin, not Italian.

Answer 5

If you hear the word pasta, you think Italy, but it’s said that pasta actually goes back to the Etruscans (400 B.C.). It is believed that they used to prepare the first lasagna made of spelt which is a cereal like wheat, but far more resistant against bad weather and diseases.

Later years, the Romans made lagane (A kind of lasagna). Lagane was a very simple dough made of water and flour. Lagane is still used today in the Center and South of Italy to call some kind of pasta. Greek mythology suggests that the Greek God Vulcan invented a device that made strings of dough (the first spaghetti!)

But what about the belief that the Great Venetian Explorer, Marco Polo, brought pasta to Italy? When Marco Polo was in the East in 1279 a.d. the will of Ponzio Baestone, a Genoan soldier, was drafted. In this will he requested "bariscella peina de macarone" – a small basket of … maccheroni! This all happened 16 years before Marco Polo returned from China.

In the 11th century, the Arabs brought pasta around the Mediterranean basin, but spread to Italy due to the very agreeable climate. Then, in the 17th century in Naples, pasta with Tomato arrived in Europe after America was discovered.    



Although pasta became very popular, it didn’t go onto the princes’ tables, because since it’s discovery it was eaten using hands. It was near 1700 that one of King Ferdinand II’s chamberlains had the bright idea of using a fork with 4 short prongs, that became a common practice. Since then pasta was also served during the Court’s banquets all over Italy, and from here its world tour began.  

The U.S. President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) loved pasta and made it known all over the United States. It seemed that he fell in love with a certain dish he sampled in Naples while he served as the U.S. Ambassador to France. In fact, he promptly ordered crates of "maccheroni", along with a pasta-making machine to be send back to the States.

In the beginning of the last century, the first, rudementary, machines for its mass-production started in Naples. But why in Naples? Because the most important moment of its production is the drying process. Naples’ surroundings and hinterland were offering the ideal environment for this production. Today modern technology allows the standardisation of pasta production and the reproduction of the ideal climatic conditions, so pasta’s production spread out in a lot of Nations.

This overall reproduction makes pasta the most known Italian food all around the world.

Answer 6

Here, I will take you through history and give you a chance to see some of the controversial and many possible "Origins of Pasta". The Italians are confident that pasta, as we know it, in it's many different forms, originated on their own fair peninsula.

They are probably right. "Pasta" translated from Latin is "Farinae Subactae" or "Flour that is worked", in our case with water. Now we all know that bread is also a farinae subactae. You can imagine how difficult it would be to dissect the origins of bread. My particularfeelings on pasta is that it has it's historically origins in Persia or in the Eastern Mesopotamian region. I can only imagine that it was discovered by mistake, like most important discoveries, probably when making bread in the wheat rich areas of the lower Nile delta region of Mesopotamia. "Oops, left this out in the sun too long, too hard, maybe I could cut it in strips and boil it and mix it with something"? Seems simple? Well maybe it is really meant to be, "simple". Some of the most delicious pasta dishes are some of the most simplistic to make even today. I will let you be the judge.

The Historically Documented "Origins of Pasta"

In Italy, a lot of people are convinced that pasta was invented in China

and brought to Italy by Marco Polo in he 13th century. In the book,

supposedly written by Marco Polo, "I  Millioni" or “The Millions",

he observed that he saw and tasted "lasagna”, similar to that which

we prepare with wheat flour". There are even conflicting reports that

perhaps he really never made it into China proper and that his

explorations took him instead to the northern reaches of Persia.

We wont pursue this any farther.  In his dotage, Marco Polo was

nicknamed "Marco of The millions" the Veneziani took the stories

of his travels to be exaggerated.



On his deathbed, a priest offered him a last chance to confess his Mendacity, and Marco,

it is said, replied "I have not told the half of what I saw and Did." For what it is worth

the Chinese do have an extensive array of different types of pasta and most are from

ancient recipes. My personal opinion is that he brought to Italy the eastern "Egg Noodle

China

It is quite possible that the Chinese had a hand in inventing pasta. There is evidence that they were certainly cooking a hard wheat pasta some 5000 years ago. But the truth is, so were many other cultures at this time especially those that had an abundance of wheat. As for Marco Polo bringing pasta to Italy in the 13th century. It is highly likely that what he really brought was a different recipe for a different type of pasta.

Etruscan

In the Etruscan tombs at Cerveteri, north of Rome, we find a mural depicting a large  

table with raised sides on which servants mix flour with water. In the foreground

are a ladle, a rolling pin and a cutting wheel, all tools for making pasta. Agriculture was very important to Etruscans: when they settled in the area of Cerveteri about 3000 years ago, the cultivation of Hard wheat spread considerably. This is due to the fact that grain was considered a "sacred" product to the Etruscans whose cleverness and experience increased the pasta industry considerably. The cultivation of wheat and the

pasta itself had a special place in the scale of values of the Etruscan civilization not only for their market price but also for their moral and religious importance.  

Situated in the plateau of Tolfa, nearby Rome, Cerveteri was the best cradle for the development of Etruscan economy and society; the volcanic fertile territory with its mild climate helped the excellent wheat industry. As proved by the magnificent mural paintings which were found in many sepulchral monuments (such as the graves of "Leopardi" and "Barone") agriculture was  very important for the Etruscans.

There are for certain documents in existence that date to the 1st Century B.C that indicate that Cicero and Horace had a grieving appetite for the "Legane". This was the Latinized word for today's "Lasagna". In fact the Neapolitan dialect today for Rolling-Pin is "Laganaturo".

From all accounts, it seems, from the cookbook of Apician, a chef of well renown for the wealthy and famous Romans, most Roman citizens were deprived of this dish because of it's reservation for only the privileged. Because of the historic phenomena of the Etruscan and Roman cultures being infused gradually into one another, the trail for the culinary art of producing pasta is, at best, unreliable. After the fall of the Roman empire and through the middle ages pasta, as well as most arts, seems to vanish. It's not until the expansion of the Arabic Saracen and Moorish cultures between the years of 900-1000 A.D. does pasta make a new appearance in the Southern regions of Europe.

Arabian or Saracin

The facts are that strips of dried pasta were included in the staples that seafarers and caravans used to carry with them even before the year 1000 A.D. Which makes a lot of sense due to the fact that on these long journeys non-perishable food stuffs were in high demand. The Arab geographer Abu Abdullah Muhammed Al Idrisi in his book, written around the year 1150 A.D. and destined for the Norman King of Sicily, Roger II, gave a particular account of how to dry, and thus preserve, fresh pasta. He explained that this flour based food in the shape of strings was called "tria" in Arabic and a lot of it was produced near Palermo in a locality called Trabia. From one story, once the tradesmen learned of this process, they wasted no time in exporting their new found technology to the northern regions of Italy.

Italian

To emphasize the, so called, rebirth of pasta, it is easy to understand the transition pasta makes from the outreaches of the Sicilian Trabia to places like Naples, Amalfi and Genoa in the years following the dark ages in Europe.



In this period of renewed trade and seamanship it is understandable that these large port cities were the first to mass manufacture and sale pasta. One story of particular interest is a document that was found in the Archives of Genoa dating to 1279. A Notary wrote it when he was drawing up an inventory of property. He states that there was a "bariscella plena de macaronis" in Italian a “Cestino di Macaroni” or a basket full of macaroni. This is clear he was talking about dried pasta.



With this in mind, Marco Polo didn't return from his journeys in China until 1292. Pasta, between 1200 and 1400, became a popular food product in Italy, even one of Italy's first prose writers, Boccacio, writes of it. There are numerous documents generated from this period establishing pasta as an important staple.



The fact is that there is no other food that has such a diverse or fascinating history as pasta. One of my favorites is that "Macaroni" actually became a cult in the city of Naples.



It can be discussed that there are three major cities in Italy that produce a Durham wheat pasta, Palermo, Naples and Genoa. But, some say that Naples and it's great tradition of macaroni only dates to the 1600-1700's. It is said that the Neapolitans only changed their dietary fondness from eating greens to pasta during these years. I tend to think that the inhabitants of Naples were probably eating pasta as far back as the "Magna Grecia" period when the Greeks migrated here from the vast fertile areas on the Adriatic Sea, in the Puglia region of Italy, where Durham wheat grows in abundance even today. Some say that the word for pasta actually came from the Greek word for dough.



Interesting enough pasta developed and became the national dish of Italy. Everyone ate pasta, including the King Ferdinand IV, who managed to include it in the official court menu. Prior to his interest in pasta, in the middle of the 17th century, pasta was sold in the narrow streets of Naples where it was eaten in a hurry and with the fingers. It was eaten plain by the commoners, still dripping of boiling water and at most seasoned with lard and cheese with a  little pepper. When pasta was served to the nobility it was usually seasoned with sugar and cinnamon or some other sweet condiment. It wasn't until after the unification of Italy in 1862 that Tomato sauce was introduced. It was King Ferdinand that first used a fork to  eat pasta, possibly influencing it's  Introduction to the court menu.



In 1800 the capitals of pasta were Naples and Genoa. Naples, as previously stated, gets it's durham wheat from Puglia and Russia. Genoa also gets it's durham wheat from Russia but also from Sicily and North Africa. We see a real elevation in technology after the artisan manufacturing of pasta in the 1800's and early 1900's during the industrial revolution. Before pasta was needed by hand, cut by hand and introduced into a hand press and then sun-dried. Small quantities were produced.



From the 1890's through to 1917 many new innovative machinery  came into use until eventually the pasta industry has moved to the commercially beneficial areas where the sun and large ports are no longer necessary.