Pasta is a food made from flour, starch and water. It is usually cooked in hot water before being eaten. Pasta has been very popular in Italy and has also been eaten in many parts of Asia for a long time.According to history, however, pasta's earliest roots begin in China, during the Shang Dynasty (1700-1100 BC), where some form of pasta was made with either wheat or rice flour. Pasta also appears to be a feature in the ancient Greek diet in the first millennium BC.