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Pasta has become one of America's favorite comfort foods. During the winter months (January through March) we all eat even more of it - 20 percent more, in fact. In late winter, it's a popular meatless Lenten treat. From spaghetti and meatballs to tuna noodle casserole, pasta dishes are a favorite for quick family dinners.

One reason for pasta's popularity has to do with ease of preparation: It is easily made right out of the box. Just boil water, pour in the pasta, and cook. While the pasta cooks, you can prepare everything else to go with it - and presto, dinner is on the table. With our harried lives that allow little time to prepare meals, pasta dishes can be quickly and easily made.

Pasta is a complex carbohydrate food. It contains 1 gram of fat, 106 calories and 5 milligrams of sodium per half-cup serving (according to mypyramid.gov). Because it's made from enriched flour, it provides B vitamins, iron and protein.

Today, pasta is easily manufactured, and just as easily stored, without taking up much cupboard space. But it wasn't always this way. If you visited Italian coastal cities in the 18th century or earlier, you would see strands of spaghetti hung out to dry on lines, just as clothes were hung out to dry on clotheslines.

Although humans have been mixing flour and water and boiling that into noodles for millennia, dried pasta is a relatively modern invention. While noodles can be made from any flour - or even any starchy food like potatoes - pasta must be made only from durum wheat semolina (Triticum durum). This amber-colored wheat was developed from other Eurasian strains through artificial selection; the earliest records of cultivation are in Byzantine Egypt. It is the hardest of all wheat varieties, and is higher in protein and gluten content (and lower in starch) than other, softer varieties of wheat. Gluten (which means glue in Latin) is a composite of tow proteins, gliadin and glutenin, and accounts for approximately 80 percent of the protein in wheat. In baking, gluten makes the dough sticky and elastic, and traps air molecules which make dough rise.

The word pasta comes from the Italian for paste or dough. To make it, the endosperm of durum wheat is coarsely ground and mixed with water to form a paste (pasta alimentaria). Its high gluten content gives the dough a malleable texture that can be easily rolled, sliced, shaped and dried.

While Etruscan tombs from the 4th century BCE show dough along with implements used to roll and cut it, we can't be sure if these were noodles or pasta. Many ancient writers, including Horace, Cicero and Apicius, also mention dishes that were probably made with pasta or noodles.

The move from fresh noodles to pasta that could be dried and stored was a big step in culinary history. It is the Arabs who lay claim to inventing dry noodle products suitable for long desert journeys; the Arab historian Al Idrisi first described dried pasta in 1138.

It is likely that the Arabs, through their conquests of Sicily, introduced pasta to Italy. By the 12th century in Sicily, dry pasta was central to both diet and cuisine and was being produced on a large scale. By the fourteenth century, pasta-making spread to mainland Italy, where it became an established industry. Because of its portability, it became a staple for long sea voyages. The proximity to the sea made shipping easy, and pasta was soon exported to other European nations.

Pasta makers formed guilds, the earliest of which (the Lasagnari) started in Florence in 1337. Guilds in other cities - Genoa, Savona, Naples, Palermo and Rome - soon followed. These coastal areas, with lots of sun and abundant sea breezes, had an ideal climate for drying the formed dough, a critical part in the process of making dried pasta. If pasta dries too quickly it will break; too slowly and it can mold or spoil.

Then came the industrial revolution. The invention of mechanical drying machines around 1800 meant pasta could be manufactured anywhere, not just in the coastal climatic regions. Other 19th-century technological inventions included the Marsigliese, a mechanical sieve for sorting crushed grain, mechanical kneaders, and Fereol Sandragne's continuous feed press soon followed. The first American pasta factory was opened in Brooklyn, New York, in 1848 by Antoine Zerega, a flour miller from Lyon, France.

Today, modern pasta machines move flour and water from holding tanks, mixing them to the right consistency. Other machines knead the dough. A laminator with large cylinders then flattens it into sheets. It is followed by a vacuum mixer which eliminates air bubbles and excess water from the dough until the optimum water content of 12 percent is reached.

After the dough is heated to kill any bacteria, it is cut mechanically. Stringy pasta - like spaghetti or fettucine - is cut with rotating blades. Tube or shell-shaped pasta (like macaroni or ziti) is forced through perforated plates (dies); the size and shape of the holes in the die determine the type of pasta. Filled pastas like tortellini or ravioli are made by other machines. From spaghetti to rigatoni, lasagna to ravioli, there are between 600 and 1000 different pasta shapes!

All those pasta shapes are then dried in large drying ovens under controlled conditions where heat, moisture, and drying time are strictly regulated. The dried pasta is then moved by conveyer belt to a packaging station, where it is measured by machine into pre-printed boxes, which are shipped to supermarkets. The entire manufacturing process is subject to strict federal regulations.

Commercial pasta has truly become common and ubiquitous, and continues to increase in popularity. The latest innovation is no-boil pasta that is partially cooked at the plant, making this already easy-to-prepare food even simpler to bring to the table. Just add cooked meat and jarred sauce, and dinner is on the table.

Pasta is versatile, and can be served with a variety of sauces - tomato, cheese and Alfredo being the most popular. When mixed with vegetables and meat or beans, it can make a healthy as well as quick meal. For an even healthier choice, replace regular pasta (made from refined grains) with a whole-wheat variety, which has not been stripped of important trace nutrients and provides dietary fiber.

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Pasta, chicken and veggie skillet

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Ingredients:

1 / 2 pound rotini or fusilli pasta

1 1 / 4 teaspoon salt, divided

2 to 3 teaspoons cooking oil

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 chicken breast

1 can diced tomatoes

10 ounces frozen broccoli

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Directions:

In a large saucepan with boiling water, cook pasta with half a teaspoon of salt according to package.

Drain.

While pasta is cooking, add oil to skillet. Add chicken, sprinkle with a little salt and a dash of pepper. Cook on medium heat, turning once, about 8 minutes or until chicken is lightly browned, cooked through and firm when pressed in center. Remove from skillet and cut up.

Add the broccoli and tomatoes to the same skillet. Sprinkle with basil and cook 2 to 3 minutes until tender.

Mash the garlic with the remaining half teaspoon of salt. Stir into the cooked pasta, along with a little olive oil.

In large serving bowl, combine pasta with 1 Tablespoon olive oil and the mashed garlic with salt. Stir well. Add diced cooked chicken and vegetables.

Serve warm. Sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan or fresh herbs, if desired.

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Hungarian-style chicken and green bean skillet

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Ingredients:

1 / 2 pound pasta

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon Canola oil

1 pound skinless boneless chicken breast

2 onions

8 oz. sliced mushrooms

1 pound French-cut green beans

1 / 2 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons paprika

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Directions:

Put the water on to boil. When it comes to a boil, add a little salt, noodles and cook according to package directions.

Brown chicken in oil on both sides; remove and set aside. Add onions and mushrooms to skillet; cook 5 minutes, or till onions are translucent. Add French-cut green beans; cook until desired doneness. Add reserved chicken and cooked noodles. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream and paprika, and serve

Pasta with greens

and tomatoes

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Ingredients:

1 pound greens for braising

6 ounces tubular pasta, such as ziti

2 to 3 slices bacon (or 1 to 2 Tablespoons cooking oil)

3 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper

1 cup diced tomatoes

1 cup diced cooked ham (optional)

Grated sharp cheese (optional)

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Directions:

Wash greens and chop coarsely. Set aside in colander.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Cook bacon in a deep, straight-sided frying pan until crisp. Remove to drain on paper towels (or heat oil in same pan). Peel and mince the garlic, add, and cook about a minute. Add greens, stir to coat and cook 10 to 20 minutes, depending on their toughness. Stir in diced tomatoes with their liquid. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over pasta, sprinkled with reserved bacon and / or grated sharp cheese, and ham if using.

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Yvona Fast lives in Lake Clear and has two passions: cooking and writing. She can be reached at www.wordsaremyworld.com or yvona_f@yahoo.com.