What do you call a single spaghetti noodle? The name for a single spaghetti noodle is “spaghetto.” If you go into an Italian restaurant and order spaghetto, chances are you’ll leave hungry. That’s because “spaghetto” refers to just a lone pasta strand; it’s the singular form of the plural “spaghetti.” Other beloved Italian foods share this same grammatical distinction — one cannoli is actually a “cannolo,” and it's a single cheese-filled “raviolo” or “panino” sandwich. Though this may seem strange given that these plural terms are so ingrained in the English lexicon, Italian language rules state that a word ending in -i means it’s plural, whereas an -o or -a suffix (depending on whether it’s a masculine or feminine term) denotes singularity. (Similarly, “paparazzo” is the singular form of the plural “paparazzi.”) As for the term for the beloved pasta dish itself, “spaghetti” was inspired by the Italian word “spago,” which means “twine” or “string.” Despite pasta’s deep association with Italy, it’s far from an Italian invention. Though its precise origins are somewhat obscure, Arab traders are thought to have introduced pasta to Sicily sometime in the eighth or ninth centuries. Even pasta sauce isn’t originally Italian: Tomatoes were brought to Europe in the 16th century by explorers from the New World, with the first tomato sauce recipe appearing in a 1692 Italian cookbook written by chef Antonio Latini. More than 300 years later, spaghetti is a perennially popular dish, even if most of us haven't always known what to call it. Weight (in pounds) of the world’s largest bowl of pasta 17,417 Cans of SpaghettiOs sold per year 175 million Length (in feet) of the longest pasta noodle 12,388 Thomas Jefferson helped popularize pasta in the United States. Around the time he served as U.S. minister to France (1784–1789), future President Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The best maccaroni in Italy is made with a particular sort of flour called Semola, in Naples.” Jefferson even tasked his secretary and diplomat William Short with tracking down a machine for making “maccaroni,” a term he used to describe pasta in general. Jefferson was known for offering pasta to his dinner guests during his presidency, and even had his own written recipe for an early form of mac and cheese that survives to this day. He was also known for serving White House visitors other European delicacies of the time, such as macaroons and ice cream. Though Jefferson was the famous face often connected to pasta’s growing popularity, his Black, enslaved cooks were the ones truly responsible for crafting the delicious dishes – among them James Hemings, Peter Hemings, Edith Hern Fossett, and Frances Gillette Hern.