There are more types of pasta than anyone can say… literally. No one knows exactly how many types of pasta there are. Many publications estimate the number of pasta types at around 350 but this is only a rough estimate. It is difficult to clearly define a certain type of pasta because the same shape can have different names from region to region in Italy. The reverse is also true for people who give the same name to different types of pasta. The complete catalogue of pasta types is enormous but none of the types we eat today come close to the original.
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The Evolution of Pasta Shapes: From Ancient Rome to Modern Innovation (Learn More: Click Here/Show More)
The invention of Italian pasta did not really happen in Italy. Noodles originated in China and were later introduced to the Middle East where people began making them with durum wheat. Since durum is the defining ingredient of pasta this suggests that the first form of pasta came from the Middle East. The earliest pasta shape would have been a sheet but not quite like the sheets we use today to make lasagna.
The first pasta looked more like cooked matzo bread. What really set it apart from today's pasta was the cooking as up until the Renaissance pasta had to be cooked for much longer making it soft rather than the "al dente" texture desired today. This wasn't the only pasta shape to come out of the Middle East however. In fact many of our modern favorites have Arabic origins.
Written references to pasta appeared in the Middle East long before Italy with the earliest known reference to boiled noodles outside of Asia coming from the fifth-century Jerusalem Talmud. Arabs are also thought to have been the first to dry noodles which they did to preserve the food for travel. Some of the basic shapes of long pasta such as spaghetti and vermicelli are thought to have been invented in the Arab world and later introduced to Italy where they got their familiar names.
