Today is World Pasta Day. I like pasta. It’s one of my go to foods. There are so many different kinds of pasta and even more ways to create sauces or toppings that a person could eat pasta every day and still have something different each time. And it’s easy.
For years we heard that Marco Polo brought back pasta from one of his trips to China. Like a lot of things, that’s apparently not true. While Marco Polo probably ate pasta on his trips, he may have already been familiar with it since there are some records that show pasta existed in Italy before he even left on his voyage. On top of that, I found rumours that it might have been a Canadian pasta company that tried to give Marco Polo the credit for pasta in the 1920’s, since it made a good story.
But they say it is far more likely that pasta, while it may have been developed in China, was also known to Arab traders along the Silk Road and that was how it ended up getting to Italy. It was earlier voyages by others who ended up bringing it back.
Those same traders apparently also learned the trick of drying pasta, making it a great food for a long journey. Once dried, the stuff can last pretty much forever until you want to cook it.
And all the different forms of pasta have made it seem like a food that pops up everywhere. It doesn’t have to have a tomato sauce. Even a Canadian staple like mac and cheese is pasta with a different sauce.
And there are so many differrent types. Spaghetti, fettuccini, linguini, macaroni, penne, ravioli, linguini… there are a lot. And they all seem to have slight differences in flavour and texture.
So Happy World Pasta Day. There are lots of ways to celebrate the day. I’m thinking maybe some linguini with clam sauce. Or maybe spaghetti Bolognese. Or maybe just a little mac and cheese on the side tonight.
So many pastas.
