The Delicious History of 14 Pasta Shapes

The history of pasta can be told, in some ways, through the many pasta shapes that have been created over the years.

Macaroni. Spaghetti. Lasagne. How did we get all of these different (and delicious) shapes of pasta? On today's episode of Food History, we'll be exploring the stories of various pasta shapes. Which pasta is named after an Italian pop singer, and which is named for an unfortunate choking accident?

Food History is a series from Mental Floss where we dive deep into the culinary stories that lead to the food on our plates. If you have an idea for a dish, cooking technique, or cuisine that you’d like us to explore in a future episode, tell us in the comments.

[mortasidhe]

I once made a 4 cheese farfalle just to 'use up' some ingredients. I absolutely nailed it, and of course, I wrote nothing down.

[frederickleo]

Shells are my fave...perfect for pooling sauce in each bite! Or of course, stuffed shells too. Yum!!

[Weeeepizza]

The burner on in the background really selling the whole thing.

[mysteriousyoungman]

Cacio e pepe is wonderful. Why this is not in every Italian restaurant is beyond me. I had it in several places in Rome. One restaurant served it in a bowl made of fried cheese. YUM!

[TheZaBi]

Just... make sure to double down the N sound in "penne", because "pene" as you pronounced it means penis instead of pens

I'm not that hungry. I'll have a single spaghetto.

[chcodog]

This video was about 50 times more detailed than I thought anyone could be about pasta history

[Astronometric]

Thank you! This is the most accurate video I ever found about pasta. I roll my eyes every time I hear the Marco Polo story, and even more the "Italians do not eat spaghetti with meatballs". I am from Rome and one of my grandamas was from Ceccano, a small town between Abruzzo and Lazio. If in Abruzzo they make spaghetti with small meatball "pallottine", my granda always made his spaghetti with huuuge meatballs in tomato sauce. The choice of eating the meatball with the pasta or later on in the meal was personal, and there was no specific rule about it.

[maxymilien]

I do love myself some puttanesca linguine. Tomatoes, olives, capers and anchovies. So simple and yet, so good. The best version of this dish I had was at a local restaurant that served a grilled swordfish steak on top. I was in heaven.

Edit: Bremner in Montreal, Canada.

[amye]

Sir, there is an unattended flame behind you.

[ellengutoskey]

gonna make a stan account for the red cutting board. love her work!

[camillastacey]

Recently discovered the joy of orzo which is currently my favourite pasta to cook with.

[Leftyloveshuskies]

"Wagon Wheels" was my favorite pasta growing up

[UnChannelDuVulpineX]

I use linguine, to which I add pesto, cheese, bacon, sausage medallions, broccoli, carrots and fine beans. It's so good!

[andreacigala]

Italian here, I started with a bit of prejudice about an American explaining pasta, but this was actually very well-explained and super interesting :)

[MattLovesVinyl]

Ravioli. Always ravioli. And no need to get fancy. Just simple ricotta and mozzarella ravioli served with Grandma's Sunday gravy, meatballs, spicy sausage, and fresh Italian bread with butter. Perfection.

[DiLorenzo]

But where did you aquire this marvelous shirt Justin? You are the trend setter 2020 needs

[ricepaddymaddie]

I once made carbonara with spam instead of pancetta and I feel like somewhere an Italian grandma is crying. But it was very good!

[Plotatothewondercat]

We use gemelli to make a casserole with most of the same ingredients as lasagna here. We like it quite a lot, because unlike lasagna you don't have to break through every individual sheet of pasta to cleanly remove a slice from the pan. Just gotta break through the cheese on top and then scoop.

[Zeyev]

Favorite sauce to put on pasta? Puttanesca of course!

One detail you could have mentioned is that North Dakota grows the majority of the durum wheat in the USA. The State so rarely gets mentioned for anything positive it could use the publicity.