A type of very small tubular pasta, smaller than ditali, often used in soups and minestrone.
Italian diminutive of 'ditale' (thimble), with the suffix '-ini' added to create a smaller version; the pasta's tiny tube shape mimics the thimble it's named after.
Ditalini means 'little thimbles' in Italian—food names are full of tiny jokes, and this pasta was literally named by someone thinking 'these look exactly like my grandmother's sewing thimbles!'
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