Pasta made of wheat, like macaroni, but is solid not tubular.
While spaghetti has achieved complete acceptance at the North American supper table and vermicelli has not, the word vermicelli entered English long before spaghetti. The English, in fact, were writing about the joys of eating vermicelli as early as the mid seventeenth century; in contrast, no one writing in English mentions spaghetti until the mid nineteenth century, and even then it was initially referred to as Naples’vermicelli. Not surprisingly, both pastas take their names from what they resemble: in Italian, spaghetti means little strings, the name being a diminutive of spago, meaning string. Vermicelli has a name even harder to swallow: in Italian the word literally means little worms, deriving from the same Latin source as the English words vermin and varmint. The colour known as vermilion also developed from the Latin word for worm: the ancient Romans ground up a particular kind of worm, known as the hermes, to make a red dye.
The subject of this article is a food preparation that comprises semolina flour processed into a paste and fashioned into elongated, slender cords.
Macaroni, a cherished and widely recognized variety of Italian pasta, holds a preeminent position among culinary enthusiasts, particularly in the United States. This particular pasta variant, aptly named for its resemblance to elongated “strings,” derives its nomenclature from the Italian word denoting “little threads.” Macaroni, adored for its versatility, finds its way into countless savory dishes and is prepared by means of cooking.