10 Things About Pasta We Bet You Didn’t Know

We at the Pasta Pantry love everything about pasta, and we assume you do too, so we thought we would share 10 crazy facts that you probably don’t know about the food you thought you knew and you love.


1) There are over 310 pasta shapes known by over 1300 different names!

2) The average person in the United States eats 15 pounds of pasta a year.



3) The average person in Italy eats 51 pounds of pasta a year.



4) In Singapore, the word for “noodles” is “meat”.



5) Thomas Jefferson brought the first Macaroni machine to America in 1789.



6) The pope once set the quality standards for pasta.




7) While pasta may go as far back as 500 BC, it wasn’t until the 1700’s that tomato sauce was added.



8) October is the National Pasta Month.



9) The black (or grey) pasta you sometimes see is made with… SQUID INK!



10) “Al dente” pasta means literally “to the tooth” because the pasta should be a bit firm to your tooth, but still tender.