It’s no surprise why pasta is one of the most popular and consumed dishes in the world. It is light, tasty, and can be combined in endless ways. A tasty pasta makes a perfect lunch, a light dinner, and it can even be a yummy snack.
When we talk about pasta, we often associate it with Italian cuisine and dishes such as spaghetti with meatballs, lasagna, macaroni, and linguine. Pasta can also be seen in other parts of the world but is called something else.
There are many theories about pasta and the origin of pasta products. Many historians believe that the pasta’s discovery can be traced back to the 13th century and Marco Polo and that he was the one who introduced pasta to Italy after returning from a trip to China in 1271.
If you’re a pasta lover, below we share 8 interesting pasta facts.
Table of Contents
All Sauces Don’t Go with All Kinds of Pasta
It is not true that all kinds of pasta and sauces go together. Long flat pasta, such as spaghetti and fettuccine, are suitable for creamy pasta sauces with cream, whereas the small short kinds of pasta such as penne or pasta go well with sauces that have, for instance, chopped tomatoes or vegetables.
Shapes and Colors
There are over 600 pasta varieties in the world. The varieties are named after the shape. Spaghetti is, for example, the plural form of spaghetto which comes from the word spago, which means twist. Farfalle is Italian for butterfly, rotelle means wheel and penne comes from the word penna which means pencil. The most popular pasta varieties are penne, spaghetti, and macaroni.
Fresh or Dry Pasta
Fresh pasta has more of a delicacy stamp and is usually more expensive, perhaps because it is a fresh product. It often contains eggs and is quicker to boil than dry. For example, it’s perfect if you want to quickly toss together a lasagna. If you want to devour everything on your pasta plate in the right way and channel your inner Italian, businesses like Let’s Pasta sell fresh frozen pasta with the best, organic ingredients that guarantee that special homemade taste.
Dry pasta is usually cheaper than fresh and it is more often made without eggs. It takes longer to cook than fresh pasta but is easier to get al dente. An advantage of dry pasta is that it lasts for many years. You can set aside a large stock of it and always be sure that there is pasta at home if the craving sets in.
Pasta is Healthy
Traditional pasta made from durum wheat maintains a low or medium glycemic index or so-called GI, and together with a salad and a pasta sauce with chicken and sun-dried tomatoes, it can provide a complete and healthy meal that will keep you full for a long time. If you choose wholemeal pasta instead, you also get fiber, minerals, and vitamins from the inner shell of the wheat kernel on the purchase.
Research shows that high-fiber pasta provides health benefits and has a protective effect against lifestyle diseases.
Pasta Is a Good Workout Buddy
Carbohydrates are consumed all the time and therefore need to be replenished. But they can also be stored. Therefore, they are excellent for recharging both before the workout and also to top up after a workout to give the body help with recovery.
Eating Pasta with Spoon or Fork
It’s not particularly an Italian custom to eat spaghetti with a spoon and fork. All of our romantic notions of the special and slightly casual-delicious Italian way of eating spaghetti are now shattered because it’s not at all an Italian invention to take the spaghetti up on a spoon and run the fork around in it. That’s something the Americans have come up with. In Italy, you eat spaghetti with a fork.
Guinness Record Pasta
The world record for the largest bowl of pasta was set in Poland in 2015. It took 40 cooks and 19 hours to complete. The fastest pasta eater in the world is Michelle Lesco from Tuscon in the USA. In 2017, she ate a bowl of pasta (100 grams) with sauce (50 grams) in 26.7 seconds.
The Biggest Pasta Spoof
On April 1, 1957, the BBC broadcast a pretend documentary about pasta plants in Switzerland. The feature showed farmers picking spaghetti from bushes and this created a lot of confusion when viewers heard about it and wondered where they could best buy their pasta plant.
Final Thoughts
Pasta is enjoyed by many people all across the world. Above we mentioned some fun facts about this staple food which we hope will grab your attention and change the way you look at it.
