''Mafaldine'', also known as ''reginette'' (
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
for 'little queens') or simply ''mafalde'', is a type of ribbon-shaped
pasta
Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an Leavening agent, unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or Eggs as food, eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was originally on ...
.
History
It comes from the
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
area, where they were once called ''fettuccelle ricce''. ''Mafaldine'' were named in honor of the birth of
Princess Mafalda of Savoy (thus the alternative name "little queens").
''Mafaldine'' is prepared similarly to other ribbon-based pasta such as
linguine
Linguine (, ; English: ; sometimes anglicized as linguini) is a type of Italian pasta similar to fettuccine and trenette, but elliptical in section rather than flat. It is about in width, which is wider than spaghetti, but not as wide as fettu ...
and
fettuccine
Fettuccine is a type of pasta popular in Roman cuisine. It is descended from the extremely thin of the Renaissance, but is a flat, thick pasta traditionally made of egg and flour (usually one egg for every of flour). At about , it is wider an ...
. It is flat and wide, usually about 1 cm (½ inch) in width, with wavy edges on both sides with a curl at the ends that remains well defined even after cooking.
''Tripoline''
''Tripoline'' () is a type of ribbon
pasta
Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an Leavening agent, unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or Eggs as food, eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was originally on ...
, similar to ''mafaldine''. It is a thick ribbon ridged on one side, and is often found in baked pasta dishes.
It is believed that this pasta shape originated in the
Campania
Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...
region.
"Tripoline", National Pasta Association
/ref>
In the 1930s, Fascist Italy
Fascist Italy () is a term which is used in historiography to describe the Kingdom of Italy between 1922 and 1943, when Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. Th ...
celebrated its colonial empire by creating new forms of pasta reminiscent of its African possessions: ''tripoline'' ( Tripoli), ''bengazine'' (Benghazi
Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...
), ''assabesi'' (Assab
Assab or Aseb (, ) is a port city in the Southern Red Sea Region of Eritrea. It is situated on the west coast of the Red Sea.
Languages spoken in Assab are predominantly Afar language, Afar, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, and Arabic. After the Ita ...
) and ''abissine'' (Abyssinia
Abyssinia (; also known as Abyssinie, Abissinia, Habessinien, or Al-Habash) was an ancient region in the Horn of Africa situated in the northern highlands of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea.Sven Rubenson, The survival of Ethiopian independence, ...
).
See also
* List of pasta
There are many different varieties of pasta. They are usually sorted by size, being long (), short (), stuffed (), cooked in broth (), stretched () or in dumpling-like form (). Yet, due to the variety of shapes and regional variants, "one man's ...
References
External links
Mafaldine at the ''Pasta Project''
Neapolitan cuisine
Types of pasta
{{Pasta-stub