Macaroni is one of the most important of cereal foods. The
best--Italian--is made from a wheat rich in gluten, so to a great
extent it supplies the place of meat.
One of the first things we do when we go into a new place is to hunt
up an Italian macaroni store, as that is the only place where the
genuine article is to be found. That made in this country, put up with
a foreign label on the package, is inferior.
The Italian pastes come in a great variety of shapes and are named
according to the shape. Macaroni, spaghetti and vermicelli are well
known; then there are lasagne (broad and flat), rigatoni (large
corrugated), da natali, ditali rigati, cannaroni rigati and reginnetti
with mostacioli bianchi, soprafini (fine vermicelli), ditalini and
acini di pepe--a few of the many. There are some small fine pastes put
up in dainty boxes, especially for invalids, that are very delicate and
digestible.
Those who have visited macaroni factories in Italy where macaroni
is made for exportation, say that everything in connection with the
food is neat and clean and that the macaroni is dried in closed rooms
entirely removed from the dust of the street. That which travellers see
drying by the roadside, exposed to the dust, is from small or private
factories for home consumption.