Did you know that more than 350-500 different pasta shapes are found in Italy? This does not come as a shock considering pasta is the comfort food there. It is cooked using different ingredients and styles and paired with many sauces. A different variant of this Italian food can be seen as you change cities.
But some of the shapes are quite unusual which are not much known to everyone. So, we compiled a list of them for you.
Check it out.
This pasta looks exactly as it means. It is shaped like old school metal radiators. Pronouncing the name as well as eating this pasta gives a nice feeling of a roll to the tongue.
The word cavatappi means corkscrew and if you’re familiar with Italian vine vocabulary, you know exactly how this pasta looks.
Another very beautiful shape right out of the dictionary, gemelli means twins. So, it contains two pieces of pasta that are wound around each other in a very consistent manner.
Though tortellini is quite popular everywhere, the story behind this shape is very unusual. Its shape actually represents what an innkeeper in the 16th century saw when he peeped through the keyhole of Lucrezia Borgia’s room- her navel.
This pasta contains flat pieces rolled up a little which resembles its name- priest stranglers. It may look like the collar worn by priests but they usually say that the name of this Italian food originated from how priests would devour the pasta served by parishioners and then choke.
This pasta has an adorable little elbow macaroni shape with a mohawk that looks like cocks’ combs. That is what Creste di Galli actually means.
In Italian, Lumache means snail. This snail/shell-shaped pasta is quite popular abroad, though not that much in Italy itself.
Mezzaluna is a rounded knife with two handles that is used for fine chopping. While the word itself means half-moon, this pasta is in the shape of circular dough filled and folded to create a half-moon shape.
This pasta shape mimics the meaning of its name- little ears. It is usually handmade which gives way to a lot of variations and sometimes you might be able to see the thumbprint of who pressed it.
We know you must be quite hungry by now reading about this Italian food. So, don’t wait and hurry to Da Italo for savouring the yummiest pasta in the Netherlands.
