Pot luck for pasta masters

01.04.33: A 900-YEAR-OLD earthenware cooking pot has thrown food historians into a quandary over the origins of pasta - and may throw new light on the diet of the 12th-century English.

The find, made by a 10-year-old boy digging for whelks in Southend-on-Sea, is being studied by historians at the University of East Anglia. They have confirmed that the pot is not, as was first thought, a vessel used to store holy relics. It is, in fact, an ancient lasagne dish.

It had been thought that Marco Polo, the 13th-century explorer, introduced pasta to Europe when he brought noodles back