Ingredients Durum-wheat flour and water.
How Made Factory-made tiny pasta in the shape of letters of the alphabet, sometimes pierced with a small hole.
Also Known As No alternative names.
Literally “alphabet,” the alfabeto was surely invented to amuse children, the usual consumers of pappe and minestrine, as were stelline (little stars), cuoricini (little hearts), and a whole variety of other tiny shapes that evoke the world of childhood. In fact, in Carena’s Vocabolario domestico,13 published in 1859, the stellina already appears alongside campanelline (little bells), lentine (little lenses), semini (little seeds), puntine (little dots), and more. The pastina called doppio zero, of variable size and with a tiny hole in the middle, can be placed in the same series.
