The National Pasta Association has named the month of March as National Noodle Month. Here are some fun facts about our favorite comfort food:
- It is believed that the first noodles were made about 4,000 years ago in China. Evidence of pasta dishes appeared in Italian recipe books in the early 1200s.
- Thomas Jefferson brought the first macaroni maker to America after visiting France. This inspired him to design a machine with instructions for making pasta.
- By Federal Law, a noodle must contain at least 5.5% egg solids.
- Collectively, the U.S. consumes 5.95 billion pounds of pasta per year.
- In 1848, a French immigrant named Antoine Zerega opened the first pasta factory in the US. It was located in Brooklyn, and he used a horse to power the machinery. His family is still running the business, today.
- Contrary to Western culture, in Japan it is considered rude not to slurp your noodles!
- Ettore “Hector” Boiardi founded the “Chef Boiardi Food Company” in 1928. The company name was later changed to “Chef Boy-Ar-Dee”. You’ll see his smiling face on his products in every grocery store.
- Want to order some Vietnamese beef noodle soup? Pho is pronounced ‘fuh’, not ‘foh’.
- If you ate ramen noodles for every meal, it would only cost you about $150 a year!
- The world’s largest bowl of pasta weighed 17,416 pounds. It took 40 chefs over 19 hours to set the Guinness World Record.
- There are over 600 pasta shapes. Have you heard of gigli, rotelle, mafaldine, and anelli?
Are you ready to start eating?
