Pasta goes as far back as the 4th century B.C., where an Etruscan tomb showed hieroglyphics of 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!).
How'd pasta find its way to the Old Country? Although there is much debate about the origin of pasta, one popular story has Marco Polo introducing the new noodle to Italy following his exploration of the Far East in the late 13th century.
In early Naples, pasta was reserved for special occasions. It was prepared as a cake, and dressed with honey and cinnamon. Things changed in 1546 when the Neapolitan Corporation of Spaghetti Makers and the Neapolitan Corporation of Macaroni showed up. Naples industrialized pastamaking and soon became the world's pasta leader.
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 "macaroni" machine to America in 1789 when he returned home after serving as ambassador to France.
The first industrial pasta factory in the United States was built in Brooklyn in 1848 by a Frenchman who dried his spaghetti in strands on the roof.
