Vermicelli

Vermicelli means "little worms," an unlovely name for one of Italy's oldest and most important pasta shapes: a long round strand from Campania, made and sold there since at least the thirteenth century. Naples took it so seriously that its pasta makers were once known as vermicellari, the vermicelli-men. The name traveled the world and loosened along the way, so that today "vermicelli" also labels Chinese rice noodles, Latin American fideo, and Indian breakfast dishes, none of them Italian. And somewhere across the Atlantic the strand itself flipped, which is the one thing worth knowing before you cook it, and the subject of the note below.

A long, round, solid strand of durum semolina, and here is the catch: in Italy vermicelli is traditionally thicker than spaghetti, around two to two and a third millimeters, while in the United States and much of the English-speaking world "vermicelli" means a strand thinner than spaghetti, close to angel hair. Same word, opposite strand. In its Italian sense it belongs to the spaghetti family, sitting a step heavier than spaghetti, with fedelini thinner and vermicelline thinner still.

Read the Italian way, as a slightly heavier spaghetti, vermicelli is built for the simple, direct sauces of the south: a good tomato, garlic and oil, or seafood, where the extra heft gives more bite. Naples in fact prefers vermicelli to spaghetti for its clams, vermicelli alle vongole, and the strand is sturdy enough for a pasta frittata. Read the American way, as a very fine strand, it wants the same light touch as any thin noodle, or a turn in a soup. The sauce follows the thickness, so the first question is always which vermicelli you are holding.

1. 01Alle vongoleClams, oil, garlic, parsley; Naples reaches for vermicelli over spaghetti.
2. 02Al pomodoroA simple southern tomato, the strand's plainest home.
3. 03Aglio e olioGarlic and oil, letting the wheat speak.
4. 04Frittata di vermicelliLeftover strands bound with egg and fried, a Neapolitan thrift dish.