Pasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, with the first reference dating to 1154 in Sicily. It is also commonly used to refer to the variety of pasta dishes. Typically, pasta is a noodle made from an unleavened dough of a durum wheat flour mixed with water or eggs and formed into sheets or various shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. It can also be made with flour from other cereals or grains. Pastas may be divided into two broad categories, dried (pasta secca) and fresh (pasta fresca).

In queueing theory, a discipline within the mathematical theory of probability, the arrival theorem (also referred to as the random observer property, ROP or job observer property) states that "upon arrival at a station, a job observes the system as if in steady state at an arbitrary instant for the system without that job."