Pasta is one of the most versatile ingredients in any cook’s armoury. It can be as simple and easy as spaghetti with oil, garlic and parmesan cheese, or dressed up to gourmet status in a wide range of dishes.

Pasta is basically flour and water, and it’s been around a long time as a food of common folk of the countries where it was originally used; in essence, it’s much like the unleavened flat breads used for centuries around the world. In Italy, which is so associated with pasta, the word just meant “dough” and it was necessary to refer to “pasta alimentari” to refer to what we now just call pasta.

The myth that Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy from China is just that – a myth. He didn’t freturn to Venice until 1298 and by that time there is evidence that the forebears of today’s pasta had been around for some hundreds of years in the Middle East.

There’s a 14^th century English recipe for a ravioli; macaroni and cheese has been around since the Middle Ages and towards the end of the 16^th century, pasta was being recommended as suitable fodder for the British navy! In 1849 Eliza Acton introduced “spaghetti” to English cooks, but it was only in the second half of the 20^th century that pasta reached the level of food staple, particularly among young people who appreciated it as much for its ease of preparation and low cost as for its gourmand properties.

In the USA, although early Spanish settlers had brought pasta and in the late 18^th century Thomas Jefferson discovered “macaroni” in Paris and imported it for his own use, it was the huge influx of Italian immigrants in the late 19^th century which started the popularity of pasta in that nation.

Pasta is made from durum wheat – which isn’t suitable for bread – and water. Although the hard flours used for bread and ‘soft’ cake flours don’t make good ordinary pasta, they are often used for home-made fresh pasta when they are reinforced by eggs to strengthen what would be a weak texture. Commercial egg pasta is also available, but with much fewer eggs than the home-made variety. For home made pasta, you need a pasta making machine and there’s a certain satisfaction in producing your own.

However, for most busy people, the range of fresh and dried pasta available both in supermarkets and in delicatessens means that pasta is readily on hand to have added to it whatever you fancy, whether hot or cold, in soups or casseroles, with a delicious sauce or as a salad. If you make up plenty basic tomato sauce when tomatoes are cheap and plentiful and freeze or bottle it, you’ve always got the basis of a meal if unexpected guests turn up or you get home late and want something tasty and fast. There are also, of course, lovely commercial pasta sauces to tickle the palate…talk about heat and eat!

There is a multitude of pasta shapes available to ring the changes, the best known of which are probably spaghetti, cannelloni, macaroni, lasagne, fettucine, vermicelli, penne rigatoni, tagliatelli, tortellini and ravioli – but have a go at some of the less well known ones and surprise your guests.

There is also a multitude of recipes on the eCook website for pasta recipes. Here are a few of our own favourites.