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What’s your pasta?
As the 2023 Giro d’Italia races towards Rome, we take a look at the origins of pasta – Italy’s staple food and the fuel of the cycle pros…
Pasta was first served in Italy as early as the 4th Century BC, having travelled from China’s Shang dynasty around 1700 BC in the form of flour noodles. After a stop-over in Ancient Greece in 1000 BC where it collected the Greek term laganon, (strips of dough made with flour and water known today as lasagne) it arrived in Etruscan Italy around the 4th century BC and was soon the dish of the day throughout the regions known today as Lazio, Umbria and Tuscany.
Later, thanks to the Renaissance, pasta was transformed from a humble staple into the passionate, culinary art it is today.
But if Il Bel Paese can’t claim to have invented dry pasta (pasta secca), Ancient Rome was at least the birthplace of fresh pasta (pasta fresca), made by adding water to semolina flour and intended for immediate consumption.
Most pastas take their name from the Italian description of their shape. And while the Italian names for the everyday nosh may sound exotic to the non-Italian ear, here’s the meaning of some familiar pasta favourites. Enjoy!
| Italian Pasta name | English Translation | Shape |
| Bucatini | Little holes | Tubular spaghetti |
| Cannelloni | Large little canes | Large stuffed tube |
| Conchiglie | Shells | Sea shells |
| Capellini d’angelo | Angel hair | Finest round-rod strands |
| Farfalle | Butterflies | Bow-tie, butterfly shape |
| Fettucine | Little ribbons | Ribbons |
| Fusilli | Rifles | Corkscrew |
| Gomiti | Elbow macaroni | Bent macaroni |
| Maccheroni | Macaroni (Often used in Southern Italy as a general word for all pasta) | Short tubes |
| Gnocchi | Knots (as in wood) | Balls |
| Lasagne | Cooking pot | Wide flat pasta sheets |
| Linguine | Little tongues | Long ribbons |
| Orecchiette | Little ears | Ear shaped |
| Mezzelune | Half moons | Semi-circular parcels |
| Paccheri | Slaps (with reference to the slapping sound they may make when eaten!) | Large stuffed tube (shorter than cannelloni) |
| Pappardelle | (From the Italian verb pappare – to devour) | Wide long ribbons |
| Penne | Pens, quills | Tubes cut diagonally like a quill |
| Pipe | Smoking pipes | Ridged bent macaroni |
| Radiatori | Radiators | Shaped like radiators |
| Ravioli | Little turnips | Square parcels |
| Rigatoni | Large ridged ones | Large short ridged tubes |
| Rotelle | Little wheels | Cartwheels |
| Spaghetti | Little twines | Long round-rod strands |
| Spaghettini | Thin little twines | Thin spaghetti |
| Strozzapreti | Priest-chokers | Tubes rolled widthways |
| Tagliatelle | (From the Italian verb tagliare – to cut) | Ribbon (finer than fettucine) |
| Tortellini | Little pies | Ring-shaped parcels |
| Tortelloni | Large little pies | Large tortellini |
| Vermicelli | Little worms | Thicker than angel hair, finer than spaghettini |
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