Dried Pasta

Yes, Chinese people have been consuming pasta for a very long time. Since 2000 BCE in fact. And you may have heard of the legend where Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy from China long ago but that really is no more than a legend or tale. In other words, it is not true! A Greek physician produced some works in the 2nd century CE that told of something he called itrion. Itrion was made from water and flour and according to records of the Jerusalem Talmud, it was a kind of boiled dough. Sound like pasta yet?

Well, Isho bar Ali was a 9th century Syrian physician and he developed a dictionary that defined itriyya (formerly itrion). It said that the substance was made with semolina and formed into string-like pasta shapes that were dried out before being cooked. Now it should sound like the pasta we know today.