Although this pasta’s origins are in Campania, it has since spread to other nations. Other nations have also started using the term “vermicelli” to describe different kinds of noodles. For example, Chinese rice noodles and Latin American fideo noodles.
Vermicelli tastes best when it is served with any kind of sauce, as a salad, or in a stir fry.
Vermicelli is a long, extremely thin pasta that means “little worms” in English. Vermicelli is thicker than spaghetti in Italy, but the pasta shape is thinner in the USA.
Here’s an elegant yet easy Chinese appetizer you can break out for your next get-together (or hustle up for your own dinner). Delicate steamed scallops are sauced with soy, garlic, ginger, and scallions, and nestled atop cellophane noodles. The scallop shells are a classy touch, but this is just as tasty served up on regular old plates. Get the Steamed Scallops with Garlic and Vermicelli recipe.
Mexican fideos (which is just Spanish for “noodles”) are super similar to Italian vermicelli in shape and ingredients (wheat and water), but they are cut shorter before being packaged and are often toasted in oil for a richer flavor, rather than being boiled. You can use regular Italian vermicelli broken into smaller pieces in any fideos recipe.
Aside from being a gorgeous shade of orange and incredibly tasty, this soup comes together in a single pot, and in only about 15 minutes! Can you say perfect weeknight supper? Red curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce, garlic, ginger—this soup is not fooling around. There are chunks of chicken submerged in the spicy, complex broth along with rice vermicelli noodles. (For another super-quick bowl, try this wakame and corn vermicelli soup. And then there’s the sour-edged Malaysian classic assam laksa.) Be sure to garnish with plenty of fresh herbs. Get the 15-Minute Coconut Curry Noodle Soup recipe.
To further confuse things, there are cellophane and glass noodles too, which are considered a type of Asian vermicelli, but are made from mung bean starch (or sweet potato starch) and cook up clear instead of white. If you can only find cellophane or glass noodles, they can be used interchangeably with rice vermicelli, though their texture is a little softer and more gelatinous. Cellophane noodles are also a good option if you’re gluten-free, since they are too!
For another less-traditional pasta dish, try twirling your vermicelli with a roasted tomato sauce spiked with green chiles. Plus, there’s plenty of bacon and Parmesan cheese. (If you like this, you’ll probably also be into vermicelli with brown butter, sausage, and spinach.) Get the Green Chile and Bacon Vermicelli recipe.
What is Vermicelli?
Vermicelli, a thin variation of rice noodles that are round in shape and thinner than spaghetti noodles, is a staple ingredient in many Asian dishes. You can also use it as a pasta alternative.
