On the Noodle Road

Newlywed Jen Lin-Liu's quest to find the origins of the lowly yet ubiquitous noodle—that starchy, sometimes unutterably delicious, sometimes indescribably inedible, staple of dishes from soup to spaghetti—begins innocently enough; the year after they're married, she and her husband, Craig, travel to Italy, where he presents her with the gift of a pasta-making class at…