☞Pasta (from the Italian word for “paste”) has a long, varied, & somewhat enigmatic history.
☞National Pasta Day is an unofficial food-recognition holiday of obscure origin that is celebrated annually on October 17. ☞Pasta (from the Italian word for “paste”) has a long, varied, & somewhat enigmatic history. According to a persistent legend, pasta was brought back to Europe from China by Marco Polo (1254-1324) after he had eaten it at the court of Emperor Kublai Khan (1215-1294). In reality, pasta was common in Europe long before Marco Polo ever visited China, but the Marco Polo myth has refused to die. Italians accuse Americans of promulgating this myth, beginning with an influential article in a 1929 issue of the American trade magazine “Macaroni Journal” (now “Pasta Journal”). In the 1938 film “The Adventures of Marco Polo,” with Gary Cooper (1901-1961), in the title rôle, points to a bowl of noodles & asks a Chinese man what he calls them. “In our language,” the man replies, “we call them spa get.” ☞Fresh pasta similar to modern lasagna & ma...