You Wouldn't Recognize The World's Oldest Pasta Shape Today

The first pasta was more like boiled matzo bread. Up until the Renaissance era, pasta was boiled longer, leaving it soft rather than 'al dente.’

Some long pasta shapes, like spaghetti and vermicelli, are thought to have been invented in the Arab world and later introduced to Italy, where they got their familiar names.

Early pasta shapes didn't have names. By the 10th century, Arabic texts defined “itriyah” as dried noodles, while fresh ones were "lakhsha."

By the time of the Renaissance, pasta was being mass-produced, and all the new and inventive shapes people were coming up with needed to be named.