Macaroni, as a generic form of pasta, probably originated in China, but nobody is absolutely certain of its exact origins. It probably was brought to Italy and Sicily by and conquerors during the Middle Ages. Currently most pasta is produced in Italy and the United States.
History
If used as a broad term to mean all types of wheat-based pasta, rather than a specific short tube-shaped pasta, macaroni likely originated in China, where the oldest evidence of this food to date has been found. In 2005, archeologists in China dug up a preserved dish of noodles dating back 4,000 years. Some Chinese documents indicate that a food similar to macaroni was eaten there as long as 7,000 years ago.
Identification
A problem with determining where macaroni originated is the disagreement about precise meanings of the words "pasta" and "macaroni" as used in historical documents. The differences between creating food from hard wheat and soft wheat, as well as other types of flour such as potato flour, and how the product was cooked, all can signify different foods than what we think of as macaroni. The terms were sometimes applied, for example, to gnocchi and even to boiled bread.
Geography
Historical records indicate that Greeks and Romans were eating some version of flattened cooked dough over 2,000 years ago. The Greeks called a particular broad noodle "laganon," and the Romans called it "lagana." However, they apparently were baking or roasting it rather than boiling it, making it more like pizza crust than like macaroni.
Theories/Speculation
Pasta has become very identified with Italy and Sicily, but we are not completely sure when or how the food arrived there.
Some speculate that explorer Marco Polo ate some pasta in China and brought it back to Italy around the year 1300 A.D., since he mentions eating this food there. The theory apparently is only a romantic myth, because there are several mentions of pasta in historical documents from Italy and Sicily from as early as the mid-1100s.
Most researchers agree that pasta likely spread from Arabia to Sicily by Arab traders and conquerers between the 5th and 8th centuries. An Arab geographer wrote in the mid-1100s that a flour-based food shaped like strings was being produced in Palermo, which was an Arab colony.
Effects
Italian and Spanish explorers brought pasta to the Americas in the 1300s, where it grew in popularity throughout the colonized areas. President Thomas Jefferson became a big fan of macaroni in the 1780s while serving as American minister to France, and is given credit for popularizing the food in the United States.
Features
There are over 600 pasta shapes, the best-known of which are macaroni and spaghetti. According to the National Pasta Association, Italy makes around 2.75 million tons of pasta every year, while the United States produces nearly 1.9 each year. Most of the wheat for this pasta is grown in the United States and Canada.
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