Saturday, February 2, 2013

Pasta's Many Shapes (and Names)


       Connie made a tortellini soup for dinner.  I knew the "ini" meant "little," and found the first part was based on "torta," meaning "cake."  They were little round pasta kind of curled up, and so the shape of "little cakes."

       Over the years I have found pasta at the grocery by their looks based on the roots in their names.  I'm not sure how thankful I was to learn that vermicelli are "small worms," so named for the slender rolls or threads of paste, but farfalle are "butterflies," which are pleasant, and I was happy to learn that linguine pasta are "little tongues," narrow and flattened like a tongue.

       Maybe I was happy because linguine has the same root as "language," which after all we do sometimes call "a tongue."   
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1 comment:

  1. anniemacFebruary 3, 2013 at 3:43 PM

    I love this entry, Don. I, too, have an admiration, if you will, of all things pasta. The shapes, textures, names. Fascinating! Do you ever watch reruns of Seinfeld? There is an episode where fusilli pasta is front and center. Fusilli Jerry, why??? because Jerry is silly. Pasta humor, al dente!!!



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