Pasta and Italia. The perfect pair! An easy-to-make dish from the authentic land of Italy. But is it? Is Pasta really from Italy?
Get yourself prepped up! Today, we are going to be unveiling exciting information about pasta and its past.
Pasta from Italy is one of the most renowned cuisines in the world. Its recipe has been unchanged for centuries. The tasty outcome from a comfortable cooking method is the best ingredient for a relaxing weekend! This characteristic has helped pasta establish itself as one of the favourite meals in the world.
Many countries have their own version of pasta.
Germany and Hungary have spaetzle. Greece has got orzo. Jewish families make their own kreplach dumplings. And Americans took the already famous spaghetti and created a dish for themselves – spaghetti and meatballs.
Let’s deep dive into the exciting history of pasta, beginning with:
Where does the pasta that we now know come from?
In Italian, pasta means paste. The word paste translates to the dough (a mix of durum wheat and water or eggs). The dough is the main component of raw pasta. This concludes that the pasta that we now know has originated and developed in Italy. But according to historians, Italians aren’t the ones who invented the pasta first. Shocked?
The pasta was first invented in Asia!
The connection between pasta and noodles!
Noodles have been a staple diet of Asians for centuries. The Chinese were using breadfruit trees to create their flour for noodles (It is similar to barley flour). It was during the 1300s when international trade was flourishing and European merchants were exploring Asia and the middle east.
From Asia, these traders started travelling with pasta to the Mediterranean. During this journey, the travellers refined the process of making raw noodles. They replaced durum wheat as flour to make the dough.
The substitution of durum wheat changed the course of history –
This simple introduction of durum wheat increased the shelf life of the noodles (also it is gluten-free). When the noodles were dried, they could last indefinitely. This noodles is made with durum wheat, the most convenient food for travellers.
This was when the Italians started experimenting with the dough made with durum wheat using their freshly grown vegetables and herbs. They revamped noodles and introduced pasta from Italy to the world!
If all this information was not exciting enough, we have got something that will do one better!
India has been associated with noodles/pasta for over 4000 years! India itself has developed Chinese based noodles according to our taste and needs. Ragi is an exemplary creation of Indians, made in 2300 BC. Ragi was used in the creation of food like noodles, vermicelli and other pasta-based noodles. Indian cuisines have given the world seviyan, sev and falooda.
We at Agastya Pasta understand this connection between pasta and the Indian kitchen. This is why we offer an array of healthy and top-quality pasta made in India for Indians!
Order Agastya Pasta now for a pastalicious meal!