Pasta is synonymous with Italian food in the United States.  It is the primary focus of Italian food.  Many of the entrees in Italian restaurants have pasta as part of the main course or pasta as a side plate.  It’s easy to store and easy to prepare.  The odds are high that when you visit your Winston-Salem Italian Restaurant, pasta is going to be a part of your meal.

Pasta actually predates pizza and tomato sauce in Italian dishes.  There are many stories or myths regarding how pasta became a part of the Italian food culture.    The most common of these myths is that Marco Polo introduced it to the country from his extensive travels.  However, pasta was already a part of Italian food during Marco Polo’s life.  To get to the heart of the matter you must travel even further back in history.  In fact the most accepted theory on the introduction of pasta to Italian food takes us back to the eighth century.  During this time the Muslim invasions greatly influenced Italian food and are the most likely start of pasta’s life in Italy.

Since the wheat used for this early pasta thrived in Italy, it quickly spread and by the 1300′s dried pasta was immensely popular and found all over the country.  The appeal of pasta to Italian food was its nutrition and its long shelf life.  These factors made pasta a great candidate for long ship voyages.  Because of this, it was one of the first Italian foods to be introduced to the world.

Once introduced,  Italians continued to eat pasta.  They learned how to make it quicker and more efficient. This only further established pasta in the Italian lifestyle.   The Italians also tried many variations of pasta.  These variations showed up in different shapes and forms.  You know some of these variations today as spaghetti, vermicelli. fettuccine, lasagna, penne and rigatoni.

All of this pasta was being consumed even before Italians knew a tomato was something to  eat.  In fact, many Europeans believed tomatoes were poisonous.  Only after the Italians watched us crazy Americans eat tomatoes and not die, did they start to experiment with tomatoes in the Italian diet.  The rest is history.

Next time you go out to eat at your favorite Italian Restaurant in Winston-Salem, you have something to share with your family and friends.  Whether they believe you or not is another matter altogether.  Soon, we will showcase one of our favorite Winston-Salem Italian Restaurants.  We will also provide you with more interesting facts about pasta consumption.