Italians insist that Marco Polo, the thirteenth-century explorer, did not import pasta from China. Pasta, which consists of flour, water, and often egg, existed in Italy long before Marco Polo left for his travels. A historian who studied pasta, places its origin in the Middle East in the fifth century. Most Italians dispute this account, although their evidence is shaky. Wherever it originated, the Italians are now the undisputed masters in making and cooking pasta. Marcella Hazan, who has written several books on Italian cooking, insists that homemade and hand-rolled pasta is the best. Pasta manufacturers choose durum wheat because it makes firmer cooked pasta than common wheat does