Here are 21 Amazing Pasta facts
1-5 Pasta Facts
1. The average pasta serving size is 480% larger than what’s recommended. – Source
2. The only reason to add salt to water for cooking pasta is to add flavor. It would take 15 tablespoons of salt to raise the boiling temperature of 1L of water by 2 degrees. – Source
3. The first record of a tomato based pasta sauce was in 1790. Italian cuisine had no tomatoes until after New World contact since tomatoes originate from the Americas. – Source
4. To Italians, the correct way to eat spaghetti is with only a fork. Eating spaghetti with a fork and spoon means you’re either an amateur, a child, or have really bad table manners. – Source
5. Cavatelli pasta resembles tiny hot dog buns, of which its name is derived. – Source
6-10 Pasta Facts
6. It’s faster and more efficient to cook pasta in a frying pan. – Source
7. Fish semen, known as milt, is considered a delicacy in many cuisines. The Sicilians use it as a pasta sauce. – Source
8. Pasta cooked al dente has a lower glycemic index than pasta cooked soft. – Source
9. Italian names for pasta usually end in the letter I or E as they are the masculine & feminine pluralisations, singulars normally end in an O such as ‘Spaghetto’, ‘Raviolo’, and ‘Tortellino’. – Source
10. Eating cold or reheated pasta is actually healthier than eating freshly cooked pasta. – Source
11-15 Pasta Facts
11. Pasta puttanesca roughly translates to “whore pasta”. – Source
12. The distinct shape of Tortellini is supposedly from when an innkeeper was transfixed by the beauty of Venus. The innkeeper peeked in through a keyhole and saw Venus’ navel. He rushed to the kitchen and created a pasta modeled after Venus’ navel. Thus Tortellini was invented. – Source
13. Pasta shapes are different for different types of sauces. – Source
14. Macaroni does not refer to the shape of the pasta. – Source
15. There are microscopic weevil eggs in grain products such as pasta and if you leave them in your cupboard for too long they will hatch. – Source
16-21 Pasta Facts
16. There is a type of pasta, shaped like radiators, called radiatori. – Source
17. The baseball from the famous Steve Bartman incident, after being sold for over $100k, was made into pasta sauce. – Source
18. The same ingredient in synthetic leather is used in dried pasta. – Source
19. Pasta primavera was first made in Canada and popularized in Manhattan. – Source
20. Mrs. Beeton, the author of Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, recommended boiling pasta for 1 hour and 45 minutes. – Source
21. An Anaheim chef serves free pasta meals to “motel kids” whose families cannot afford permanent homes. The chef was inspired by his Italian mother who saw a child eating potato chips for dinner and told him in Italian, “You must feed them the pasta!” He has served over 270,000 meals. – Source
Pasta puttanesca? LOL! I have never seen and hope will never see this pasts type =)