Linguine is a type of Italian pasta shaped like long, flat ribbons, a bit wider than spaghetti but narrower than fettuccine. If you imagine spaghetti pressed flat until it's about as wide as a shoelace, you've got linguine.

The name comes from the Italian word for “little tongues,” which describes the shape pretty well when you think about it. Linguine works beautifully with lighter sauces that can coat the flat surface, especially seafood dishes like clam sauce or shrimp scampi. The flat shape gives you more surface area than round spaghetti, so each bite carries more flavor from whatever sauce you're using.

In Italian cooking, matching the right pasta shape to the right sauce matters. Chefs choose linguine when they want something that can hold onto sauce without feeling too heavy. Next time you're eating pasta, notice the shape: thin rounds like spaghetti, flat ribbons like linguine, or tubes like penne all change how the dish tastes and feels in your mouth.