Macaroni

Macaroni is the pasta whose name once meant all pasta: maccheroni, from a root that most likely means to pound or knead dough, was for centuries a general Italian word before English narrowed it to one small tube. The shape most people picture — the little curved elbow — is largely an Italian-American story, its bend a happy accident of extrusion (the tube curls when one side is pushed out faster than the other) that turned out perfect for holding cheese sauce. Pasta baked with cheese is old, older than the elbow, running back through Thomas Jefferson's celebrated table and English recipes to medieval Italian dishes of sheet pasta layered with cheese. But it was America that made macaroni and cheese a household staple, especially after the boxed version arrived in 1937 and sold by the millions.

A short, narrow tube of durum wheat, most familiar in its curved "elbow" form, though maccheroni in Italy can mean straight short tubes as well. The elbow's bend gives it more surface and a little scoop, which is why it holds a clinging cheese sauce so well. It is a smooth, unfussy shape — the plain workhorse of the tube family rather than a ridged or dramatic one.

The elbow is built to carry sauce on its curve and trap it in its bore, which is exactly why it became the cheese-sauce tube. It shines in creamy bakes and stovetop dishes, holds up in soups and cold salads, and takes to chunky, hearty preparations that catch in and around the curve. It asks for sauces with some body; a thin, oily dressing runs straight off a shape this small and smooth.

1. 01Mac and cheeseElbows in cheese sauce, baked or stovetop; the icon.
2. 02In minestroneA sturdy little pasta for a vegetable soup.
3. 03Insalata di pastaCold with vegetables and a creamy or vinaigrette dressing.
4. 04Con carne e pomodoroBeef and tomato, the goulash-style bake.