Why do people keep using Wikipedia? From an actual historical dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary:

Earliest use as an English word: 1830:

J. P. Cobbett Jrnl. Tour Italy 214 Maccaroni, like vermicelli, is only one of the forms into which the Italians make what they call ‘pasta’ or paste. It requires a particular sort of wheat, a brittle, flinty grain, to make this pasta.

Earliest mention in English (i.e., as an Italian word): 1820:

W. A. Cadell Journey Carniola, Italy & France II. 152 The Italians prefer that [sc. Macaroni] which is fresh made, and made at home, and called pasta di casa, household paste.*

For me, laziness mostly. OED isn't free, and I don't care enough to pay for it, or figure out how to get it free.

Even if the correct date is 1830 or even 1820, it is a distinction without difference. It misses the middle ages by more than a hundred years.