Spaghetti
Spaghetti is sometimes considered the typical Italian dish. It is a form of long, thin round pasta, frequently served in a marinara (tomato) sauce with meatballs or some other meat.The word is the plural of the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of spago, meaning string, or twine. Therefore, literally, the word spaghetti means little strings. It is, however, normal to treat it as a singular in English, and say "this spaghetti is nice" rather than "these spaghetti are nice". Similarly, to speak of an individual strand, we would say "there's a piece of spaghetti on the floor" rather than "there's a spaghetto on the floor".
The term is sometimes used to refer to Italians in a derogatory way, e.g. as in Spaghetti Western.
Legend has it that Marco Polo brought the recipe for spaghetti back from China; however there is evidence that pasta has been made in Italy at least since the 4th century BC.
Eating spaghetti with a fork and a spoon is perfectly polite, being the traditional Neapolitan habit. However, many other Italians consider the proper way to eat it to be with just a fork, or with the help of the edge of the knife at the very most, like any other dish.
Related articles
External links