*Fusilli* are long, thick, corkscrew shaped pasta
. The word "fusilli"presumably comes from "fuso", as traditionally it is "spun" by pressing and rolling a small rod over the thin strips of pasta to wind them around it in a corkscrew shape, much like a modern Turkish spindle.
In addition to plain and whole wheat
varieties, as with any pasta, other colours can be made by mixing other ingredients into the dough, which also affects the flavour, for example,beetroot
or tomato
for red, spinach
for green, and cuttlefish
ink for black.
"Fusilli" may be solid or hollow. Hollow"fusilli" are also called "fusilli bucati".
The term "fusilli" is also used to describe a short, flattened, twisted pasta known as rotini
in the United States