FUSILLI OR ROTINI
“When we cook pasta in the restaurant, we put the dry pasta in a sieve, lower it into a pot of boiling water, cook it, drain it thoroughly, and pour it right into the pan of hot sauce. We stir it well and mix in a little softened butter and grated Parmesan cheese, then pour it into a heated serving dish. Pasta must be served very hot, so it is a good idea to warm the plates beforehand. There should be a bowl of freshly grated Parmesan cheese on the table for people to serve themselves….” Arrigo Cipriani, The Harry’s Bar Cookbook
There are two kinds of fusilli: Long spirals (fusilli lunghi) and short screws (fusilli corti). In the United States, the short version is commonly called rotini. The word fusilli is from the Italian noun fuso, meaning spindle. Spiral fusilli is made by “spinning” thin strand of pasta; a small rod is rolled over the pasta threads to wind them into a corkscrew shape.
