15 Feb 2012, Posted by admin in EAT + DRINK, 0 Comments

Word Fun Wednesday: Macaroni

The Wednesday word of the day. In which we (fine, only here in this odd little head) explore various words from our culinary past, starting with “macaroni.” Imagine all the fun to be had with “extinct” words (Maccare!) and almost extinct phrases (“Be that as it may”).

MACARONI. “The Anglicized version of the Italian maccheroni, a tubular form of pasta which was among the earliest forms to be developed. The term is probably connected with an extinct word, maccare, meaning ‘to pound.’ A trace of the same root survives in modern Italian as macarie (rubble) — and also in the macaroon, an Italian confection of pounded almonds. Be that as it may, the importance of macaroni was such that for a long time, in both Italian and English, the name could be used as a generic one for pasta (excluding only sheet pasta such as lasagna and filled pasta such as ravioli)….”

- Excerpt from The Penguin Companion to Food by Alan Davidson, 1999.