We know the ancient Etruscans, who occupied north-central Italy before the Latins, were familiar with pasta. Design work in some of their tombs show both the tools for preparing pasta and the ingredients. This is approximately 2100 years BEFORE Marco Polo returned from China. With regards to China, records there show that they were eating a noodle type food about 7000 years ago.

Historically, it is known that the Greeks, Etruscans, Latins, and Ostrogoths all were familiar with and ate food made from a "paste." In all probability, any group of people who harvested grains are likely to have developed a "paste" (pasta) from ground wheat and water. No mystery, that's all there is to it; flour and water equal pasta. Flatten it out, cut into shapes, cook some in water for now and dry some for later use.

The first European published references to pasta came from an unknown medieval author whose book of milk tarts and egg pies also included formulas for making vermicelli (little worms) pasta.

In the 1100's CE, an Arab geographer named Al-Idrisi published a book titled "Enlightenment for Travelers" and described a food from near Palermo, Sicily, made from flour in the shape of threads and called "Itriyah," meaning strings. A modified version of the word is still in use in Sicily today to identify pasta, it is "Trii."