Noodles existed in China and Asia long before pasta appeared in the Mediterranean world, and the legend goes that Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy from China in the 13th century. Apparently, there are passages in The Travels of Marco Polo (by Marco Polo, of course) that refer to “pasta-like dishes.”
According to history, however, pasta's earliest roots begin in China, during the Shang Dynasty (1700-1100 BC), where some form of pasta was made with either wheat or rice flour.
The legend that pasta was inspired by Chinese noodles brought to Europe by Marco Polo in the 13th century has been widely believed. To many, though, the Chinese origins of Italian pasta are a myth.
While some historians believe pasta originated in Italy, most are convinced Marco Polo actually brought it back from his epic voyage to China. The earliest known pasta was made from rice flour and was common in the east. In Italy, pasta was made from hard wheat and shaped into long strands.
Spaghetti (Italian: [spaˈɡetti]) is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta. It is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine. Like other pasta, spaghetti is made of milled wheat, water, and sometimes enriched with vitamins and minerals.
Modern pizza evolved from similar flatbread dishes in Naples, Italy, in the 18th or early 19th century. The word pizza was first documented in AD 997 in Gaeta and successively in different parts of Central and Southern Italy.
You've heard that tired old trope about how Italy stole pasta from the Chinese. But that the greatest culinary theft in history didn't actually happen: The world's great pasta dishes sprang up independently. Storms don't just come in teacups. They also come in big bowls.
Pizza dates back thousands of years, believe it or not, tracing its roots back to the flatbreads with toppings that were popular with ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. But modern pizza, the flatbreads with tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings, was born along the western coast of Italy, in the city of Naples.
The earliest pasta shape was a simple sheet, which was treated more like bread dough. It probably didn't have the toothsome quality – known as “al dente” – associated with Italian pasta today, and would have been similar to unleavened matzo bread with sauce on it.
The word 'pasta' is an Italian word meaning 'paste', referring to the paste that pasta dough is made from with egg or water and flour. However, before Italian pasta as we know of, was all over the world, pasta was called 'maccaronaro'. This means 'kneading dough with energy'.
The vast majority of San Remo pasta is made at our pasta factory in Windsor Gardens, South Australia. It is made using Australian grown durum wheat and you can find more information about this here.
Although China was not the originating place for noodles, the earliest form of noodles was discovered in a village in Northwest China. The uncovered noodles was more than four thousand years old, which provided evidence that Chinese had a culture of eating noodles for over four thousand years.
Mein (or mian) is simply the Chinese word for 'noodles' (pronounced 'me-an'). Both lo mein and chow mein are made from the same type of Chinese noodle. This noodle is made from wheat flour and eggs, similar to Italian pasta.
Italian immigrants have been coming to Australia for over 200 years. They brought their culture and food, and Australians have been eating it up ever since! These dishes include pasta, pizza, lasagna, and risotto. They also brought along the tradition of gelato (Italian ice cream).
Pasta certainly existed in Italy long before Marco Polo headed off to explore new lands, but its exact origins have unfortunately been lost in the depths of time. Some attribute its beginnings to the Etruscans, a pre-Roman civilisation found in central Italy.
Parts of Italy were invaded by the Arabs in the 9th century – they brought rice, almonds, and spinach with them. These three ingredients became popular all over Italy and became cornerstones of the cuisine. Almond flour was used to make bread, pasta-style dishes, and even sweet treats.
Some say pasta started with the Etruscans, a pre-Roman civilisation in central Italy, since a supposed pasta-making tool was found in an Etruscan tomb. This is a shaky theory, however, and it's more likely that pasta was introduced by Arab traders in Sicily throughout the 8th and 9th centuries.
Pasta is one of the oldest processed foods, dating back several thousand years to around 1100 BC. For comparison, bread dates back to around 8000 BC.
There are similarities, but some key Italian ingredients and dishes were not found in ancient Roman cuisine—no pasta (introduced later) and no foods from the Americas, including tomatoes!
Explorer Marco Polo brought a Chinese scallion pancake, Cong You Bing, to Italy in the 13th century. But flatbread foods are found throughout history in Persia, Greece, and Egypt. The origin is hard to pinpoint, but the origin of the modern pizza is Naples, Italy in the 1700s.
Spaghetti is the quintessential Italian pasta. It is long – like a string (hence the name, as spago means string) – round in cross-section and made from durum wheat semolina. Commercial varieties are generally used, but artisanal versions are easy to find.
Based on etymology, the “Vocabolario Etimologico della Lingua Italiana” reveals that pizza comes from the dialectal pinza from the Latin pinsere, which means to pound or stamp. Other etymologists suggest it is related to the Lombardic word bizzo or pizzo, which means mouthful, and is related to the English word bite.
Italian Food Without Tomatoes
Bread, pasta, olives, and beans were all staples, and Italians also made a variety of different types of polenta.
Different areas of Italy favor different varieties of tomato. The tomato, it turns out, has always been political. Brought to Europe by the Spanish when they colonized the Americas – it's an Aztec plant, as we can tell by its original name, “tomatl” – by the mid-1500s, it had made its way to Italy.
Noodles are a type of pasta that originated in China. They are made from a dough of wheat flour, water, and salt. The dough is then stretched or rolled out thin and cut into strips or sheets.