Rigatoni

What it is

Rigatoni is a child of the extruded pasta industry of central and southern Italy. The ridges that give the shape its name are a machine-made feature. The Pasta Project notes that grooved pasta surfaces spread only after production industrialized in the nineteenth century, since traditional hand-shaped pasta lacks them. Rome claims the shape most firmly. De Cecco's own product page calls rigatoni a typical traditional pasta from Rome, and the city gave it a signature dish. Rigatoni con la pajata pairs the wide tubes with the intestines of a milk-fed calf, a fixture of Roman offal cooking. The shape is just as loved farther south. Wikipedia describes rigatoni as a particular favorite in southern Italy, especially Sicily, where it anchors rigatoni alla Norma, the eggplant and tomato dish that tradition links to Bellini's opera. Whatever the kitchen, the brief stays constant. A big sturdy tube, cut square at the ends, built to carry heavy sauce.

From Italian rigato, meaning lined or scored, the past participle of rigare, to draw lines, with the augmentative plural suffix -oni. The name reads roughly as big ridged ones.