Fun Facts About Pasta You Should Know
Do you want to impress your friends, family, or colleagues? Show them that you know pasta in ways they can only imagine with these facts about pasta. You’ll blow your boss’s mind or impress your girlfriend with your knowledge of Italian culture that most people don’t know. At your next gathering, start the conversation with these 7 pasta facts and let us know how it goes, or you can just click here to discuss with live gamers.
Italian for pasta
Do you know the Italian word for pasta? Originally, the word “pasta” is rooted in Greek and Latin. In Latin, it is translated as “barley porridge” and the Greek translation means “dough pastry cake.” In Italian, it translates to “paste” due to the way it is made. Pasta is made with water, flour, eggs, olive oil, and additional ingredients depending on the type of pasta.
It’s all in the sauce
Not all pasta is created equal so certain sauces should be paired with certain kinds of pasta. Specific types of pasta like fettuccine and linguine are meant to be mixed with creamy sauces. Short or spiral pasta is best paired with thick, chunky tomato and meat sauces. When creating Italian pasta dishes, consistency is very important and the type of pasta used makes a significant difference in the end result, as that will make you online slot machines sessions even more interesting.
April Fools
Television’s 1st April Fools prank features a funny pasta story. In the UK, the BBC aired a 3-minute fake news story on April Fool’s Day in 1957. It showed a family in Switzerland supposedly harvesting spaghetti from the family’s “spaghetti tree.” Since spaghetti was not well known in the UK at the time, British viewers fell for the prank. CNN has labelled the prank as “the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled.”
Coming to America
How did pasta get to America? You can thank Thomas Jefferson for that. During an extended stay in Paris, Jefferson ate macaroni and enjoyed it so much that he brought back two cases with him in 1789. When he ran out, he ordered more from a friend in Naples. In the 19th century, a large group of Italian immigrants came to America and helped to make pasta a common food.
All shapes and sizes
You may already know that pasta comes in all different shapes and sizes. But you may not know that pasta comes in over 600 shapes and sizes around the world. There is meaning and purpose behind each one as they are a product of the rich culture of the specific region they were created in.
Chinese origins
The pasta was first eaten in China. In fact, the first recorded reports of eating pasta come from China in 5,000 BC. As a descendant of Asian noodles, Italian pasta evolved from pre-Roman Etruscan civilizations who were making their own pasta using grain smashed with rocks and mixed with water to make dough. The common belief was that Marco Polo brought pasta from Italy but it was already in existence before then. Extensive trade eventually allowed various forms of pasta to be shared around the globe.
Italians love pasta too
Italy consumes the most pasta in the world! Tunisia and Venezuela come in second and third on the list of largest pasta consumers. To put this in perspective, the average American consumes 15 pounds of pasta a year. However, the average Italian eats more than 51 pounds of pasta a year!
