Names of Italian Pasta

Your kids will love it when you make them their favorite type of pasta.

While it's said that pasta was invented by the Chinese, and only introduced to Italy in the 13th century thanks to Marco Polo, it's best known as a traditional Italian food.

Stuffed Pasta

Agnolotti is in the shape of a half-circle and typically stuffed with meat. Cannelloni are large tubes of pasta that are often filled with meat, covered in meat sauce and baked. Ravioli are squares of pasta stuffed with vegetables, meat or cheese, and the edges are pinched together and ruffled.

Hollow Pasta

Bucatini is similar to spaghetti in shape, but it has a hole through the center, allowing the sauce to get caught inside the pasta. Cavatappi is a hollow pasta in the shape of corkscrews. Penne are hollow tubes that are diagonally cut at the ends.

Shaped Pasta

Cavatelli are short, rolled pieces of pasta. Conchiglie is seashell shaped. Farfalle is better know as bow-tie pasta. Fusilli is straight, flat pasta that's been twisted into corkscrews. Ruote is the pasta that resembles wagon wheels.

Flat or Straight Pasta

Bigoli is made from either buckwheat or whole wheat and is thick, similar to the thickness of spaghetti. Linguine is flat but also thin, just slightly larger than spaghetti. Fettuccine is flat and wider than linguine, resembling a ribbon. Pappardelle pasta is wide and flat like a ribbon--not as large as lasagna pasta, but wider than fettuccine. Angel hair pasta is a type of super-thin spaghetti.

References

• Italylogue.com; Italian Pasta Names: Way Beyond Spaghetti; September 2008
• FoodReference.com; Pasta - Italy's Gift to the World; Hrayr Berberoglu