1932
A worker hangs pasta to dry in a factory in Italy.
Image: Alfred Eisenstaedt/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Pasta, the most famous staple of Italian cuisine, was first recorded in Sicily in the 12th century, a few centuries after Arab invaders brought a dried, noodle-like dish to the island.
Mainly made with durum wheat and eggs or water, pasta (from the Latin for “dough”) was for many centuries a food reserved for the rich and privileged. It was not until the 18th century that industrialized production made it a cheap staple food for large numbers of Italians.
Soft and pliable pasta dough is shaped into hundreds of different forms, from the simple strands and sheets of spaghetti and lasagne to bowties, seashells, wagon wheels and bicycles.
With massive Italian immigration to America at the beginning of the 20th century, pasta’s popularity grew and it became known as Italy’s national dish.
But even as late as 1957, many people outside of Italy had no clue how it was made. On April Fool’s Day of that year, the BBC aired a story on Italians enjoying a bumper harvest of spaghetti due to a decline in the “spaghetti weevil.” The program showed Italian and Swiss families cheerfully picking long strands of spaghetti from “spaghetti trees,” and led many viewers to call in, curious about how they could plant their own.
These photos from 20th century pasta factories show the actual process by which the dough is squeezed, shaped, cut and dried on its way to the dinner table.
1932
Image: Alfred Eisenstaedt/ullstein bild via Getty Images
1939
A chef makes tagliatelle at King Bomba's, one of the largest Italian shops in Soho, London.
Image: Felix Man/Picture Post/Getty Images
Date unknown
A Russian factory worker handles strands of pasta.
Image: Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images
1955
Zelda Albano cuts spaghetti into lengths as it emerges from a machine at a pasta factory in Holloway, London.
Image: Reg Speller/Fox Photos/Getty Images
1943
A worker for Atlantic Macaroni Company hangs spaghetti to dry at a factory in Long Island City, New York.
Image: Corbis via Getty Images
Date unknown
Spaghetti hangs in a drain chamber in an Italian pasta factory.
Image: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
c. 1955
Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Date unknown
Men at work in a pasta factory.
Image: Bettmann/Getty Images
Date unknown
Young boys carry strands of pasta to a factory yard for drying.
Image: Hulton-Deutsch/Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images
1929
Image: Fox Photos/Getty Images
1929
Image: Fox Photos/Getty Images
c. 1925
Pasta strands hung out to dry at a factory in Naples, Italy.
Image: Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
c. 1925
Image: Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
1928
Image: Schlochauer/ullstein bild via Getty Images
1932
An Italian factory worker bends dried spaghetti with a stick.
Image: Alfred Eisenstaedt/ullstein bild via Getty Images
1949
Strands of spaghetti dry on racks near the beach in Amalfi, Italy.
Image: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Date unknown
Pasta is hung out to dry in a market.
Image: Bettmann/Getty Images
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