In honor of National Pasta Day this past Tuesday, here is an article on the origin of pasta. As I was making my penne and meat sauce dish yesterday for dinner, I thought to myself “where did pasta come from?” Most people think pasta comes from Italy, since pasta is from the Italian word “paste” but the pasta we know today probably descended from Asian noodles.
Noodles in Asia existed long before pasta was made in Italy. According to Uncover the History of Pasta written by Tori Avey “Archaeologists believe that central Asia is most likely the first area to have produced noodles thousands of years ago.” And from Pasta is Not Originally From Italy written by Julia “…the Chinese had been consuming noodles as early as 3000 B.C. in the Qinghai province.”
Some people think when Marco Polo traveled to China in the 13th century he brought back to Italy the idea of pasta. According to his book “The Travels of Marco Polo” he briefly mentions a plant that produced flour. But Marco Polo is unlikely to be the first person to introduce pasta to Italy. (Uncover the History of Pasta written by Tori Avey) Another theory is that the idea of Pasta was introduced to Italy from the Arabs who likely got it the idea from China.
Learning that pasta probably originally came from Asia got me thinking about noodles in South Korea and Japan especially the popular food college students eat, ramen. This food to no surprise also came from China, but much later than when Italy was first introduced to pasta. According to George Solt, a author of many academic writing on the origin of ramen, traced ramen back to a soup that was brought from China to Japan in the 19th century. In the book by Anneli Rufus The Strange History of Ramen Noodles she mentions that “Ramen first appeared in Japan in 1910, when Chinese cooks at Tokyo’s Rairaiken restaurant created a signature dish comprising broth and Chinese noodles, which were yellower and more elastic than Japanese noodles”
Koreans then brought ramen (which they call ramyeon) from Japan to their country. They invented their own kind of spicy ramen noodles known today as “Shin Ramyun”, the name of an instant ramen noodle brand from Korea that can even be found in Walmart! Below is Shin Ramyun with egg:
From pasta to ramen, noodles can be enjoyed in so many ways. My favorite is penne pasta with tomato sauce. As for Asian ramen I am a fan of cheese ramen. What’s your favorite noodle dish?