Italian cuisine more varieties that are filled with other ingredients like ravioli and tortellini. The word pasta is also used to refer to dishes in which pasta products are a primary ingredient. It is usually served with sauce. There are hundreds of different shapes of pasta with at least locally recognized names. Examples include spaghetti (thin rods), rigatoni (tubes or cylinders), fusilli (swirls), and lasagne (sheets). Dumplings, like gnocchi (made with potatoes or pumpkin) and noodles like spätzle, are sometimes considered pasta. They are both traditional in parts of Italy. Pasta is categorized in two basic styles: dried and fresh. Dried pasta
Alphabet pasta Alphabet pasta Alphabet pasta, also referred to as Alfabeto, is a pasta that has been mechanically cut or pressed into the letters of the alphabet. It is often served in an alphabet soup, sold in a can of condensed broth. Another variation, Alphaghetti, consists of letter-shaped pasta in a marinara or spaghetti sauce. It is not clear who invented the alphabet soup, but Knorr sold it in Europe as early as the 1910s. It is reported that as early as 1867, Raleigh's Tri-Weekly Standard made reference to the fact that letters of the alphabet were now replacing other shapes of