Macaroni pasta

A form of dried pasta made from durum wheat and traditionally shaped in short, narrow rubes, macaroni is more commonly associated in Italy with soup. Elsewhere, it is most famously associated with a baked dish called macaroni cheese which originated in England and not in Italy, as many might suppose. But macaroni itself does originally come from Italy and while some domestic pasta machines can create the shape, it most commonly produced commercially by a process of extrusion and sold in its dried form.

The name comes from the now obsolete Italian word maccarone (or maccharone) meaning food made from barley. The word had a secondary meaning in 18th century England where it was applied to a young man who aped continental fashions.