Stories: Born in Italy or Borrowed from China?
You’ve probably heard the story: Marco Polo brought pasta from China to Italy. It sounds romantic, like a tale from an epic journey — but the truth is far more interesting. Pasta was already a thing in Italy long before Polo ever set sail.
The Romans and Laganum
When we think of pasta, our minds usually jump straight to steaming bowls of spaghetti or bubbling trays of lasagna. But the Ancient Romans had their own version long before tomatoes or mozzarella ever entered the picture. They called it laganum — wide, thin sheets of dough that were baked or fried, rather than boiled in water.
The poet Horace (65–8 BC) even mentioned enjoying laganum with chickpeas in one of his satires, proving it wasn’t just elite fare, but a dish ordinary Romans loved too. Later authors like Apicius, the Roman gourmet, included recipes that layered dough with sauces, meats, and vegetables. Sound familiar? It’s essentially the ancestor of lasagna.
Fun fact: Unlike today’s lasagna, Roman laganum didn’t include tomatoes (which only reached Europe after Columbus). Instead, it was paired with pulses, meats, and fermented fish sauce (garum), the Roman equivalent of ketchup. Imagine lasagna with chickpeas and fish sauce — definitely an acquired taste!
The Etruscans: Pasta’s First Pioneers
Even earlier than the Romans, the mysterious Etruscans (who lived in central Italy between the 9th and 1st centuries BC) were already making shaped dough part of their cuisine. Archaeologists have unearthed rolling pins, cutting wheels, and baking sheets from Etruscan tombs — tools that look remarkably like those still used in pasta-making today.
In a famous fresco from a 4th-century BC Etruscan tomb in Tarquinia, diners are shown feasting at a banquet where servants bring forward trays of what appear to be pasta-like dishes. Some historians argue this could be the earliest visual evidence of pasta on Italian soil.
Fun fact: The Etruscans didn’t just make tools — they also gave us the word makaria, which some scholars link to early forms of pasta. The name may have traveled through Greek colonies in southern Italy, eventually morphing into the medieval maccheroni. Yes, macaroni’s roots may lie with the Etruscans!
So where did the China connection come from?
Well, China had hand-pulled noodles — and yes, the similarity is striking. But noodles are a story that happened in parallel. Two cultures, separated by continents, both discovered the magic of flour, water, and human creativity.
And the Marco Polo connection? The idea that he “brought pasta from China” seems to have been popularized much later, possibly as part of a 1929 Canadian spaghetti company marketing campaign. By the time Polo traveled in 1275, spaghetti was already well-established in southern Italy, particularly in Sicily. He didn’t discover Italy’s pasta — he just happened to be on the same culinary timeline.
It’s fascinating to imagine Italy, with its rolling hills and sunny kitchens, developing pasta at the same time that China perfected the noodle. Two worlds, two culinary legacies. And the next time someone tells you Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy, you can smile knowingly — Italy had its pasta party first.
