Who “invented” pasta?
Popular legend has it that Marco Polo introduced pasta to Italy following his exploration of the Far East in the late 13th century; however, we can trace pasta back as far as the fourth century B.C., where an Etruscan tomb showed a group of natives making what appears to be pasta. The Chinese were making a noodle-like food as early as 3000 B.C. And Greek mythology suggests that the Greek God Vulcan invented a device that made strings of dough (the first spaghetti!). Pasta made its way to the New World through the English, who discovered it while touring Italy. Colonists brought to America the English practice of cooking noodles at least one half hour, then smothering them with cream sauce and cheese. But it was Thomas Jefferson who is credited with bringing the first “maccaroni” machine to America in 1789 when he returned home after serving as ambassador to France. The first industrial pasta factory in America was built in Brooklyn in 1848 by, of all people, a Frenchman, who spread his
Popular legend has it that Marco Polo introduced pasta to Italy upon returning from exploring the Far East in the late 1200’s. We can, however, trace pasta back even as far back as the fourth century B.C. An Etruscan tomb shows a group of people making what appears to be pasta! The Chinese go back to 3000 B.C. in their making of a noodle-like food. The Greeks even suggest that the God Vulcan invented a device that made “strings of dough” – the first pasta making machine!
