Types of Pasta

Appears in
The Authentic Pasta Book
The Authentic Pasta Book

By Fred Plotkin

Published 1989

  • About
Italy is known around the world as a nation of great style, creativity, and fantasy. It is a leader in every field of design, including clothing, automobiles, furniture, architecture, kitchen equipment, and so on. Therefore, you should not be surprised that there is an endless variety of shapes of pasta. Although there are pastas used throughout Italy, there are many more that were born in specific places and were designed to accompany local sauces.

Many names have disappeared. In Tuscany, cappelletti used to be called nicchi, but you only hear this usage in the remotest parts of the province. In Sicily many years ago there was a large variety of maccheroni similar to ziti and known as Napoleonic in honor of Bonaparte. Around the same time, in parts of the Italian peninsula, a pasta similar to rigatoni was named Cavour, dedicated to one of the leading fighters for Italian national unity.