Macaroni is a type of pasta shaped like small, curved tubes. When you cook macaroni, you boil it in water until it becomes soft and tender, then drain it and add sauce, cheese, or other ingredients. The most famous macaroni dish is probably macaroni and cheese, where the cooked pasta gets mixed with a creamy cheese sauce.

Macaroni comes from Italy, where pasta-making became an art form centuries ago. Italian pasta-makers discovered that different shapes work better with different sauces: the hollow tubes of macaroni are perfect for catching cheese sauce or holding small pieces of vegetables.

The word has an interesting second meaning in American history. In the 1700s, wealthy young Americans who traveled to Europe and came back wearing fancy foreign clothes were called macaronis because they seemed to be showing off their sophisticated European tastes. This is why the song “Yankee Doodle” mentions sticking a feather in his cap and calling it “macaroni”: the song was originally making fun of colonial Americans by suggesting they were so unsophisticated that they thought a feather was fashionable.

Today, macaroni usually just means the pasta, and you'll find it in kitchens and cafeterias everywhere.