08 January 2010

Why is farfalle called "bow-tie" pasta, rather than "butterfly" pasta?


Farfalla* is the Italian word for butterfly, and the shape is exquisitely butterfly-like.  I would bet there are more English-speaking people who are familiar with butterflies than with bow ties.  The pasta dates from the 1500s in Lombardia, Italy (about a century before the Croatians invented the bow tie).

* - the "e" at the end of the pasta word is feminine plural, so it would translate as "butterflies." 

Photo credit.

7 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 8, 2010 at 7:58 PM

    I wouldn't eat butterfly pasta anymore than I would eat butterfly soup or a butterfly sandwhich. They should be called flutterbys anyway.

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  2. BarbwireJanuary 8, 2010 at 11:15 PM

    I believe you mean "plural". I don't think the pasta is related to the lungs in any way.

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  3. MinnesotastanJanuary 9, 2010 at 2:06 AM

    Fixed. Thank you!

    stan

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  4. NomadJanuary 9, 2010 at 9:33 AM

    In many languages, the word for "bow tie" and the word for "butterfly" is the same. Papiyon- at least, this is the pronunciation, but probably not the spelling. Remember that film with Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen? So perhaps it was a poor choice by a translator?

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  5. ellieJanuary 9, 2010 at 1:27 PM

    I call them butterflies, but then, my family is Italian...

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  6. Swift LorisJanuary 9, 2010 at 2:23 PM

    "And I think the American people want a president who's not afraid to say, 'I am who I ammm.. butterflieeea and all.'...So that's why I wearrr.. the butterflieees."

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  7. AnonymousJanuary 11, 2010 at 8:06 PM

    Bow ties are called butterfly ties (or just butterflies) in other languages.
    Papillon springs to mind.

    So this pasta could well be called butterfly-tie pasta, and we wouldn't know it.

    The pasta does look more like the tie than the insect butterfly.

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