People consume cereals (from which pasta comes from) since 8.000B.C. which is the time when people first started to cultivate and eat products made of cereal.

Historical elements prove that pasta was consumed by the Egyptians and that it was a very popular food in China about 6.000 ago. Various sources attribute the origin of pasta to different people such as the Chinese, the Etruscans, the Romans and the Arabs. It is believed that Marco Polo brought this food back to Italy in 1292A.C, even though the Italians refuse this version of the story and attribute the origin of pasta to the Romans.
The first clear indication of the existence of pasta dates back to the 12th century, when Guglielmo di Malavalle described a pasta dish (macarrones sen logana) he tried at a meal he attended.

There have been many clear indications about the production and consumption of pasta since then, especially in the areas of Napoli and Genova. The fisrt lasagna recipe was written in the 15th century, although pasta was not an important part of people’s diet since the 17th century and was only consumed as a luxurious meal or even as a dessert.
Pasta was part of the diet of the Italians in the 17th century, when the introduction of technology and the increase of the hard wheat cultivation resulted in the establishment of pasta as a cheap and easy food for the weaker social layers. As a consequence, the importance of pasta for people’s health became even bigger. The two capitals of pasta in 1800 (in terms of production and exports) were Napoli and Genova. However, the transition from fresh pasta to dry pasta (for commercial purposes) and the geopolitical position of the Genova port contributed to the spread of pasta worldwide.
The progress of the technology of the productive procedure allowed the increase of the production and the decrease of the costs and these are the reasons why the consumption of pasta has increased. With the passage of time, the production of pasta was no longer manual and the productive process became totally automatised.

Today, pasta continues to be one of the most popular kinds of food all over the world and Italians are by far its most fanatic consumers. An average Italian consumes about 25 kilos of pasta every year, while countries with big pasta consumption are Japan (average consumption; 8.9 kilos per year) and Greece (average consumption; 8 kilos per year).