SHORT HISTORY OF SPAGHETTI WITH TOMATO SAUCE (HB)

Did Marco Polo bring pasta back from China, or is that a myth? How did the Neapolitan “macharoni” turn into the ubiquitous spaghetti? Is it even an Italian dish? Massimo Montanari goes in search of the dish’s true origins, tracing its history along the multiple, intricate routes taken by its raw ingredients to merge and become a distinctive element of culinary tradition. As we dig in search of spaghetti’s origins, we find its strands wrap right around the world.