パスタ

Treccani explains Italian pasta as coming from Late Latin pasta and Greek pastē, flour mixed with water and salt. Japanese dictionaries give パスタ as Italian pasta or, in Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, an abbreviation of Italian pastasciutta. The core source form is pasta, a food word for dough and for shaped products made from wheat flour, water, and sometimes egg. Japanese use is part of 20th-century Western and Italian food vocabulary. Earlier yōshoku menus often used スパゲッティ and マカロニ as separate dish names, while later restaurant and home-cooking language grouped them under パスタ. Hotel New Grand in Yokohama is associated with post-1945 スパゲッティナポリタン. The word now appears with ラザニア, ラビオリ, ペンネ, and フェットチーネ, and it fits both imported Italian dishes and Japanese inventions such as 明太子パスタ. Modern Japanese パスタ often means a spaghetti-based plate in casual speech, especially at cafes and family restaurants. Italian pasta is broader: it can refer to dough, paste-like material, or many fresh and dried shapes. English pasta is usually closer to the Italian food category than to the Japanese cafe shorthand. One short example is 昼は和風パスタにした.