PASTA. Ground grain of the wheat plant (genus Triticum; family Gramineae or grass), native to Eurasia, forms the fundamental component of commercial "pasta," the generic term for what the U.S. Federal Standards of Identity call "macaroni products." Italian commercial dried pasta combines durum wheat (Triticum durum, hard wheat, or semolina, its coarsely ground endosperm) and water into a large number of shapes and sizes. Soft or common wheat (Triticum vulgare) is used for homemade or "fresh" pasta (which often contains egg, and sometimes oil and salt), as well as for bread and pastries. These are the two most important wheat grains in the Mediterranean diet.

Pasta is a versatile, nutritious, economical, thus democratic, and increasingly international food. In past times, it was fried and sweetened with honey, or tossed with garum (fish paste) by the ancient Romans. Or it might have been...