Pasta goes as far back as the 4th century B.C., where an Etruscan tomb showed hieroglyphics of a group of natives making what appears to be pasta. The Chinese were making a noodle-like food as early as 3000 B.C. BUT WAIT! Greek mythology suggests that the Greek god Vulcan invented a device that made strings of dough (the first spaghetti).

Those Greeks again!!! Is there something they didn't invent, or think of?

Although there is much debate about the origin of pasta, one popular story has Marco Polo introducing the new noodle to Italy following his explorations of the Far East in the late 13th century. This story is entirely false, Pasta was being made by Greeks and Etruscans around 500BC. So important to the Italians that a museum has been dedicated entirely to pasta - the Museo Storico degli Spaghetti (Historical Spaghetti Museum).

In early Naples, pasta was reserved for special occasions. It was prepared as a cake and dressed with honey and cinnamon. In 1546 things changed when the Neapolitan Corporation of Spaghetti Makers and the Neapolitan Corporation of the Macaroni showed up. Naples industrialized pasta making and soon became the world's pasta leader.

It was Thomas Jefferson who is credited with bringing the first "macaroni" machine to America in 1789 when he returned home after serving as ambassador to France. The first industrial pasta factory in the United States was built in Brooklyn in 1848 by a Frenchmen who dried his spaghetti in strands on the roof.

What does pasta means? The term pasta means paste. The making of noodles is not too difficult a task even for primitive people, since they discovered the method of preserving their cereal grains. Because pasta noodles are essentially neutral in taste, they are perfect conduits for carrying a myriad of flavors to one's mouth. The important thing to remember is that pasta is an excellent food source. It does not initiate a glycemic response in diabetics because it is digested so slowly. It is a nearly perfect source of carbohydrates.

ITALIAN CUISINE - how did it get evolved? Italian cuisine is not difficult to master. It has remained basically homecooking, la cucina casalinga. But, its diversity is inexhaustible! Italians prepare foods they way they practice living, with great zest and enjoyment. Good food means good times.

The excellence of Italian dishes depends on the excellence of the things that go into them. The old saying that good cooking begins in the market is truer in Italy and Greece than in France. Italian sauces are used to enhance the taste of individual ingredients - not to camouflage them. In spite of the 1870 unification of the country, an intensive local patriotism is part of the Italian character. Traditionally, Italy has been divided into the affluent North and the historically poor South. Each region has its own specialties.

Wave after wave of invading peoples over a period of three thousand years has had a profound influence on Italy's culinary history. In particular, the Etruscans, the Greeks and the Saracens each left behind a trademark. The Etruscans left a mush known today as polenta. The Greek trademark was fish chowder, which they also bequeathed to Marseilles where it is called bouillabaisse. The Saracens left their mark in their fine flaky pastry as sfogliatelle and rice.

Italian cuisine was the first developed cuisine in Europe, but it traces its ancestry back to the gourmets of ancient Greece. Most experts agree that Italian cooking became the mother cuisine of other countries in 1533 when Catherine de'Medici went to France to marry King Henri II. She brought teams of expert cooks to France who delivered France the secrets of the most sophisticated cuisine yet developed at that time. There are thought to be at least 200 different shapes of pasta with over 600 different names.

The following is some of the most frequently used types of unfilled pasta:

Anelli, Anellini, Anelleti small rings used for soup Brichetti "small bricks" Bucatini long, medium-thick tubes Cavatappi short, thick corkscrew shapes Ditali, Ditalini "little thimbles" Linguine long, flat ribbons Gramigna "grass" looks like sprouting seeds Cornetti ridged shells Orzi, tiny, rice-like grains Pearline tiny discs Rigatoni thick, ridged tubes Semini seed shapes Strozzapreti "priest strangler" Vermicelli slender strands usually twisted

Cravatte, Cravattini bows Dischi Volante "flying saucers" Farfalle bows Fettuccine narrow ribbon pasta Fusilli spindles or short spirals Gemelli "twins" two pieces wrapped together Corallini small rings Orecchiette ear shaped Pappardelle widest ribbons Penne thick tubes with diagonally cut ends Rotelle wheels Spirale two rods twisted into spirals Tagliatelle broad, flat ribbons Ziti Tagliati short, thick tubes