Saffron, Tomato + Persian Basil Pasta

Recent studies indicate that noodles weren’t introduced to Italy from China by Marco Polo in the 13th century. The transfer took place much earlier, in fact, and from the Middle rather than the Far East. Food scholars now believe that pasta is most likely to have originated in Persia, and it was probably the Arabs who introduced noodles, and the hard durum wheat necessary for making it, to Italy in the 9th century. Long before the introduction of the tomato from the new wor