Scialatelli


Scialatelli is a short, thick pasta with a rectangular cross section and an almost straight but slightly irregular, slightly curvy shape. It is typical of modern Campanian cuisine, having originated on the Amalfi coast as a chef's specialty, but it has also spread in nearby regions such as Calabria and Basilicata.

History

Scialatelli is a recent innovation, compared to many other Italian pasta shapes. The Italian chef Enrico Cosentino devised the shape in the late 1960s in his native Amalfi, while working in a local restaurant, and it gained recognition in 1978, when he won the Entremetier prize in an international culinary contest.

Etymology

Scialatiello may come from Neapolitan scigliatiello or sciliatiello, a derivative of the verb sciglià, and it roughly translates to "ruffled": just like ruffled hair, scialatelli indeed look like "ruffled" strips of pasta when set in a dish, as each strip has a slightly irregular shape after being hand-made and plainly cut by a kitchen knife. Another theory about this pasta name is that it comes from Neapolitan scialà and tiella, though it rather sounds like a folk etymology resulted from a linguistic corruption of the original word.