What is Linguine?

Linguine is a classic Italian paste that is said to be native to the Campania region of the country. The term can be spelled linguine or linguini. The Italian translation is "small languages". This type of pasta is now popular in dishes from around the world.

The linguini pasta is wide, flat and thin. Some types have the thickness of spaghetti, with a wider noodle. Classically, linguine is known as a type of pasta that often goes with seafood or other lighter dishes, while bolognese or other types of red meat sauces are often paired with spaghetti noodles.

Modern restaurants have taken a lot of inspiration from linguine noodles. Pairing these pastas with more and more types of sauces and additions is a way to spice up a dish. Chefs also sometimes buy flavored linguine, where everything from spinach to different types of herbs is added into the pasta recipe, which often makes the noodles a different color.

There are also all kinds of Italian pasta that chefs seek when they want a specific variety for use in a particular dish. There is thinner linguini, also called linguetinne. There is also fettucini, where the large noodles tends to have a different consistency, and falls differently on the plate. The shades of texture and shape are well known to chefs who use linguine pasta as in their own personal kitchen.

In addition to accompaniments like seafood and pesto, other ideas tend to dominate when a cook piles food over this kind of pasta. One such idea, at least in America, is the use of a creamy "alfredo" thick sauce. Many Italians insist that this is not a classic Italian sauce, but in an American cuisine, alfredo accompanies chicken or other items as well as linguine or any other type of traditional Italian pasta.

Looking for different types of Italian pasta shows how this popular food for dinner has made its way to "old country" all over the world, and to America, where chefs from across the country, as well as major chains of Commercial catering, borrow heavily from the old world of Italian cuisine. Italian cuisine has become so much part of the American landscape that terms like linguine are now part of the regular lexicon. Linguini is commonly Fount on supermarket shelves, dry or as part of frozen dishes. Due to the popularity of pasta dishes, even many of America's largest pizza chains have started offering quick pasta dishes for sale to busy customers. Whether gourmet or fast food, this kind of pasta does not go anywhere soon.

• Linguini is flat, wide and a thin paste.