Preparation of pasta in the Middle Ages
There has been a rumor for centuries that spaghetti, today the best known type of Italian pasta in the world, would have been invented by the Chinese and brought to Europe only in the Middle Ages, or from Marco Polo after his return from his long journey to the East.
However, this is baseless chatter :here's why.
The oldest spaghetti dish that has survived was in fact found in an area in the North-West of China and dates back to about 40,000 years ago, but they are made of millet.
Chinese noodles, although very ancient, were mainly based on soy, while wheat was not even known.
On the other hand, a text dating back to the 12th century, previous to Marco Polo's feat of at least 100 years, he mentions a dish of "vermicelli", defining them as a thin-threaded wheat pasta produced in the vicinity of Palermo, probably of Arab origin .
In conclusion, Chinese and Italian spaghetti are two completely independent inventions.
Furthermore, "ours" would actually be an Arab invention that soon spread to Italy, where it met with enormous and everlasting success. .