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R.N. Pasta Dies& Extrusion Systems

History of pasta

From Traditional Pasta to Modern Industrial Production

Where pasta comes from, which stories are backed by evidence and which are legend — and how the extrusion die became the heart of modern production.

Timeline

Evidence, legends and industrialisation

Each entry is labelled as documented evidence, popular legend or background, with its source. Early food history is incomplete, and historians continue to debate details such as the ingredients of the Lajia noodles.

  1. About 4,000 years ago

    Documented evidence

    The oldest noodles yet found — Lajia, China

    Archaeologists found long, thin noodles preserved in an upturned bowl at the Lajia site in north-western China. A 2005 study in Nature identified them as millet noodles. Other researchers have since questioned the millet identification, but the find remains the oldest physical evidence of noodle-like food — and a reminder that pasta-like foods developed in more than one place.

    Sources

  2. Ancient Mediterranean

    Background

    Sheets of dough in Greek and Roman writing

    Some food historians point to ancient Greek and Roman references to layered sheets of dough as early relatives of lasagne. This evidence is literary rather than archaeological, and these doughs were not necessarily boiled or dried like modern pasta, so how closely they relate to pasta is debated.

    Source

  3. 1154

    Documented evidence

    A dried-pasta industry in Sicily

    The Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi described the town of Trabia in Sicily, where a food made of flour “in the form of strings” was produced, dried and shipped by boat to other parts of Italy and beyond. It is one of the earliest written records of dried pasta made and traded at scale.

    Source

  4. 1295 — legend

    Popular legend

    Marco Polo did not bring pasta to Italy

    A popular story says Marco Polo introduced pasta to Italy when he returned from China in 1295. Italy already had pasta by then — as the 1154 account from Sicily shows — so the story is a myth.

    Source

  5. Middle Ages onwards

    Documented evidence

    Dried durum-wheat pasta takes root in Italy

    Dried pasta made from durum wheat found its home in Italy, with traditions developing over the centuries in Sicily, Liguria, Naples and Bologna. Durum wheat — milled into semolina — remains the classic raw material for dried pasta.

    Source

  6. 1800s

    Documented evidence

    From workshops to pasta factories

    Pasta-making moved from craft workshops into factories during the 1800s. The Museo della Pasta in Parma displays machinery from an industrial pasta factory of the first half of the 1800s and a craft workshop of the late 1800s; Barilla’s pasta business also began in Parma in that century.

    Source

  7. 1933

    Documented evidence

    The continuous press and automated production

    Engineers Mario and Giuseppe Braibanti of Parma produced the first continuous pasta press in 1933. Instead of pressing dough in separate batches, a continuous press mixes and extrudes without stopping — the foundation of the automated pasta plant, in which the die at the head of the extruder determines every shape.

    Source

  8. Today

    Background

    Modern automated pasta manufacturing

    Industrial pasta factories now automate mixing, extrusion, drying and packing to deliver consistent quality. Die design — the shape of each opening, its inserts and its surface — is what lets one extruder make macaroni, penne, fusilli and many other formats.

    Source

  9. 1983

    Documented evidence

    Instant noodles arrive in Indian kitchens

    Nestlé launched Maggi instant noodles in India in 1983. Their success showed that quick-cooking, wheat-based convenience foods could win a place in Indian homes — the same aisle in which packaged pasta and macaroni now compete.

    Source

Sources

  1. Lu et al., “Millet noodles in Late Neolithic China”, Nature 437, 967–968 (2005)
  2. National Geographic, “4,000-Year-Old Noodles Found in China” (2005)
  3. Scientific American, “Noodling the Noodles” (August 2010)
  4. Museo della Pasta, Parma — exhibition itinerary
  5. BBC News, “How Maggi noodles became an iconic Indian snack” (2015)
  6. IMARC Group, Indian Pasta Market Report 2026–2034
  7. OEC, Pasta in India — trade data (HS 1902)

Sources were consulted in October 2026.

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