The Italians are most skillful in preparing appetizing and economical dishes. The nutritive foodstuff which often forms the foundation of these is macaroni, made from a wheat flour rich in gluten. At the Italian stores in large cities many quaint styles of macaroni may be found. Some are saffron tinted; some for soups are shaped like the letters of the alphabet, others are in threads, and still others are in plain bands or ribbons and bands with a fluted edge. All the different varieties are cooked alike, except that some require longer cooking than others. In Italy the common name for all varieties is "pasta," macaroni being the name for the common stick pasta with a hole through it. Spaghetti is usually cooked unbroken; the ends of the long slender sticks of paste are put into boiling water, and then as the heat and moisture soften the sticks they are coiled in the saucepan. When tender and blanched the cooking and dressing are the same as for macaroni. Macaroni proper is broken into short pieoee of uniform length and cooked in rapidly boiling salted water until tender, then drained and rinsed in cold water. Thus treated the pieces do not adhere, one to another, nor is the dish at all mushy.