Things you don’t know about Italy: maccheroni

Maccheroni (usually written macaroni in English) is a particular kind of pasta made with durum wheat, commonly in short lengths, and I would like to introduce you the story of this pasta. The word macaroni is used a lot outside Italy, especially for the macaroni and cheese dish, and it is also a vocabulary present in the French language (macaronis). The origin of this kind of pasta is in southern Italy, probably during the X–XI century, and it is said that the word came most likely from two Middle age’s Greek words: μακαρώνεια (makarōneia), “dirge”, it was the definition of the dish usually served to the dead during ceremonies; the second word is μακαρία (makaria), “barley broth”, which would have added the suffix –one. While this word is used a lot abroad as a synonymous of pasta (like μακαρόνι in Greek), in Italy this vocabulary is strictly referred to this specific shape of pasta. In Italy, in fact, there is a rigid distinction between the different kinds of pasta, not only for ingredients but also for shape, like tagliatelle and spaghetti, but also distinctions of maccheroni like rigatoni and tortiglioni.

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