Pasta is produced from finest durum wheat semolina. Pasta is an excellent source of complex carbohydrates, which provide a slow release of energy. Unlike simple sugars that offer a quick, yet fleeting boost of energy, pasta helps sustain energy. For this reason pasta is also preferred by sportsman and artists who need immediate and lasting energy.
When we examine the nutritive value of pasta, we see that it contains vitamins of A, B1, B2 which are every important for human body; it is very rich in iron, calcium, phosphor, potassium and proteins. Pasta is cholesterol free and has a very low fat and sodium content.
It is nutritive, satisfying, and delicious, it is eatable as a single meal, it is easy to cook, it has many varieties, it is rich in vitamins and minerals, and it is cheap and has a long shelf life. On the other hand, researches indicate that in the countries with high pasta consumption, stomach and intestine cancers are seen less.
There have been many researches up to now to find the first creator of pasta. Italian's nationalistic feelings play an important role in these researches. According to the researches, if "dough" is accepted as formless or unformed, Pasta means forming, shaping. The roots of the word "dough" come from "Indo-Germanic dheigh" meaning to knead dough and to give it a shape. In short dough is a mass which does not have a shape and it waits to be shaped or in other words it waits to become pasta.
According to the Travel Report which was registered in Genua Prison in 1298 and published after the invention of the printing machine in 15th Century, Marco Polo saw the production of Pasta in China and brought it to Italy and reformed it for the taste of Italians. Surely, this is nothing more than a story. In the same years, Maccheroni had been eaten in the South of Italy for years. At that time, Maccheroni was the name used for pasta in Italy no matter what shape.
On the other hand it is believed that all societies of that period knew something prepared from grounded wheat and a simple food made by the kneading of the dough. It is accepted that compared to this, the making of bread which needs yeast is a very difficult invention. It is also claimed that some shapes like dough are seen on the graves of Etrusks. We also know that Arabs, who knew hard wheat before Italians, cooked dough circles that were rolled slimly. It is also said that Arabs had winded dough pieces on sticks and dried them in the sun and so turned it to a durable product. Could the hole in Pasta come out in that way? Today, even the documents in the Pasta Museum in Rome cannot explain the origin of pasta clearly.
Pasta was not a noble food up to the end of the 20th Century. Naples's Lazzaronis (thieves and vagabonds) ate pasta often. The show effect is probably because the long pastas were eaten with hands until the invention of fork in 16th Century. Long pastas were first taken by hand, and then carried to mouth by declining the head lightly backwards and swallowed sometimes without chewing. This artistic show was generally done by the Southerners; it was not possible to put on airs by chewing the pizza which was very simple.
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