Food & Cooking Questions and Discussion Got a cooking question or something you want to discuss about food and cooking? This is the forum for you. Talk about anything related to food & cooking.


Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #1  
Old 04-02-2007, 01:22 AM
HotChef Offline
Registered User
Culinary Experience: Professional Chef
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: since 16 years in Moscow,Russia
Posts: 90
Question FettuccinI or FettuccinE

( I am not italian...) but i know both spellings can be used, when describing a dish of pasta.
BUT which one would be more PLEASING to the eye and is being used more in italian restaurants...
__________________
good food, one of the few pleasures left to mankind...
Reply With Quote


  #2  
Old 04-02-2007, 01:53 AM
siduri Offline
Registered User
Culinary Experience: At home cook
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Rome, Italy
Posts: 1,143
Default

actually, both are NOT correct. Both are USED but that doesn;t make them correct! Only one is correct, in italian, and since this is an italian dish, it's fettuccine, with the final E.

the i, in general, is the masculine plural ending. the e is usually the feminine plural ending. And fettuccine is the plural of the feminine noun fettuccina, which is the diminutive of fettuccia, meaning ribbon.

Now when words cross borders and are used in other languages, the spelling rules often go to the winds. But unlike english, which can hardly be said to have spelling rules, Italian spelling has rules with no exceptions, except occasionally for imported words. To the extent that if you want to spell a name out loud in italian, you just pronounce it carefully. So, fettuccine is pronounced with an "eh" sound, (like the sound in "bread" - exactly like the first e in "fettuccine") at the end, not with an "ee" sound (like in "teeth")

But then again, everyone calls it fettuccini in english, and eventually it might become an english word, not an italian word. ("Zucchini" is an example of this. "Zucchina" would be the singular in italian, and the plural is "zucchine", not "zucchini" (which would be the plural if the singular were zucchino, which it isn't) But by now it's an english word (zucchini) and i've even heard it pluralized to zucchinis!

So, all said, i think if you want it to be classy, you'd want to use the true italian spelling and call them fettuccine. And if you're using "zucchini" in a dish with an english name "fried zucchini" that' s fine, but if you give the dish an italian name, like "zucchine gratinate" you should use the italian spelling.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 04-02-2007, 02:56 AM
Ishbel Offline
ChefTalk Moderator
Culinary Experience: Cook At Home
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 1,516
Default

Or perhaps, as the British do, we could refer to zuchinni by the French name of courgette?! And don't get me started on the egg plant/aubergine topic!

In the UK lasagne is spelled with an 'e' ending. I have seen it written with a final 'a' on lots of sites, too.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 04-02-2007, 06:58 AM
even stephen Offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: on the coast
Posts: 509
Default

Just like scallopine.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks


Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Fettuccine Alfredo and the wedding scifimom Food & Cooking Questions and Discussion 1 06-16-2007 10:26 PM
Fettuccine Alfredo nancya Recipes 8 08-21-2001 03:27 PM