“Who first introduced spaghetti to Italy? Well, you often hear that it was Marco Polo who introduced pasta to Italy after his return from China. And it was discovered by one of his sailors, a Venetian whose name was, appropriately enough, Spaghetti. The only problem with this memorable story is that none of it is actually true. That’s only a taste of the fascinating bits of information, both accurate and false, contained in Massimo Montanari’s A Short History of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce, which will be published later this month. The book is just the right length (128 pages), academic and an utterly fascinating discourse on food history. It explains how pasta became so incredibly popular and how, over the years, it was paired with parmesan cheese, tomato sauce, basil and olive oil, to form the dish so many of us regularly enjoy today.”
Read the full article in The Daily Beast.
