The first accounts of pasta consumption in the Mediterranean date back to 5th century and can be found in the Jerusalem Talmud. Gradually, dried pasta became very popular in the Arab cuisine and street merchants started offering it widely, due to its exceptional durability, ease of transport and storage and because it was convenient for street trade.

Home-made pasta was less durable and was consumed mainly in the family.

The Arabs brought pasta to the newly-conquered Sicily,

where it met with a warm welcome. Even today in some parts of this pretty island people still prepare pasta with raisins and typical Arab spices which is a hint as to who brought it there. According to one theory, the word macaroni comes from the Sicilian maccarruni – “made from dough with lots of effort”. This explanation has its logic, as up until the Industrial Revolution the only way to mix large quantities of dough was… smashing it by foot.

Regardless of whether it was brought by the Arabs

or was a local product, slowly but persistently, pasta started conquering the Apennine Peninsula. It wasn’t long before the vermicelli also appeared on the culinary scene, as testified by the name of the cookbook “The Art Of Cooking Sicilian Macaroni And Vermicelli” by Martino Corno, Head Chef of the Patriarch Of Aquileia. This new food certainly had appeal and was quickly gaining fans. In 1150 the Arab geographer al-Idrisi wrote that in Trabia – a town near Palermo – “they produce enormous quantities of food made of dough cut into bands, which they trade everywhere, in Calabria and many Christian and Muslim states, even transport it with ships.”

Soon after, pasta appeared in official documents. In 1279, in a notary account of a property of a deceased, “a basket of pasta” was listed.

Coming back from his 20 year long journey to China

in 1295, among other things, the Venetian, Marco Polo, brought to Italy the news that in the land of the Chinese Emperor people were making macaroni too. According to some sources, it was the legendary traveller who first brought spaghetti to his homeland. Contemporary historians however believe, that the story of pasta in Europe began before his return. In 14th and 15th centuries pasta continued its conquest of the Apennines. Durable and easy to transport, it was the perfect food for sailors during the Great Geographical Discoveries. In the 15th century pasta could be found in the inventory of many Italian and Dominican monasteries.