Stunning Historical Photos Show Pasta Production in the Past

Pasta has been part of Italian life for centuries, but its origins stretch far beyond Italy. The earliest known pasta dates back to 5,000 BC in China. Arab traders introduced it to Sicily in the ninth century, and from there it spread across the Italian peninsula. Many Sicilian recipes still carry traces of those medieval Middle Eastern roots, using ingredients like raisins and cinnamon. By the 1300s, dried pasta was already popular across Europe. Its long shelf life made it a practical food for sailors on long voyages. Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés brought tomatoes to Europe in 1519, and before long, pasta and tomato sauce became one of Italy’s most iconic food pairings. Thomas Jefferson is also credited with introducing pasta to America in 1789, after encountering it during his time abroad.

The word “macaroni” comes from a Sicilian phrase meaning to knead dough vigorously. That name reflects just how labor-intensive early pasta making really was — a full day’s work. Durum wheat, which thrives in Italy’s dry climate, became the foundation of pasta production. It spread quickly from Sicily to the Italian mainland and eventually to the rest of the world wherever Italian immigrants settled.

Small shops and local factories were the backbone of pasta production for much of the 20th century. Workers rolled, cut, and shaped dough by hand or with simple machines. Drying was a critical step — long strands of spaghetti and lasagna noodles were draped over racks, bamboo poles, and wooden frames, often left to air-dry outdoors in the Italian sun.

Large-scale pasta factories, like the well-known Buitoni plant in Sansepolcro, Italy, employed teams of workers to sort, inspect, and package finished pasta. Quality control was a hands-on process. Workers examined strands individually, pulling out broken or uneven pieces before the product moved on to packaging.

Not all pasta production was entirely serious. In September 1961, a London restaurant staged a playful stunt, photographing workers harvesting spaghetti from a mock “vine” on the ceiling — a nod to the BBC’s famous 1957 April Fools’ Day spaghetti harvest hoax.

By the mid-20th century, pasta factories had spread well beyond Italy. London’s Messrs L Ugo Ltd in Holloway was producing a full range of pasta types by 1955, directly competing with imported Italian products. Workers there operated machines that extruded, cut, and shaped everything from spaghetti to ravioli.

Before mechanical dryers became standard, pasta was dried outdoors in the open air. Along the Amalfi coast, wooden frames called “spaghetti horses” were set up on beaches, where strands of spaghetti were draped and left to dry in the sea breeze. It was an efficient, centuries-old method that required no equipment beyond sun and wind.

London’s Soho neighborhood was home to some of England’s most active Italian food shops in the late 1930s. At King Bomba’s, one of Soho’s largest Italian grocers, chefs hand-rolled and machine-cut fresh tagliatelle daily. Eugenio Celoria, who worked at the shop in 1939, was photographed crafting pasta strands with the same hands-on technique used in Italian kitchens for generations.

In Torre Annunziata near Naples, spaghetti production was the lifeblood of the town in the 1930s. The entire process — from extruding the dough to hanging strands over bamboo poles — happened in the open streets and courtyards. Children and adults alike carried long bundles of fresh spaghetti on their shoulders through the town, moving the pasta from one stage of production to the next.

Outdoor drying was common across Italian towns well into the 1920s. Boys carried fresh pasta through the streets on long wooden poles, hanging strands high on outdoor frames to catch the air. The method was completely dependent on weather and required workers to move quickly to prevent the pasta from drying unevenly or becoming brittle in the sun.

Pasta production was not limited to Italy or Italian immigrant communities. By the early 1920s, Russia had its own macaroni factories, with workers operating machines to produce pasta on an industrial scale. The global reach of pasta is also illustrated by early 20th-century New York, where Italian immigrants established factories in the city to supply the growing American demand.

Early 20th-century Italian factories show how pasta production was already shifting from purely handmade to machine-assisted. In 1903, factories in Italy were photographed with workers operating extruding machines that pushed wet dough through molds to shape spaghetti strands. Once cut, the fresh pasta was moved outdoors immediately to begin the drying process. In some facilities, workers kneaded the dough directly with their feet before it was fed into the machines — a practice that continued in smaller operations for years.