No, this is not Chef Boyardee. This is anelletti, a dry pasta that is particular to Palermo–in fact, you will rarely find this pasta shape outside of Sicily. America’s Chef Boyardee, who was really “Chef Boiardi,” was from northern Italy, but when he picked this Sicilian pasta to feed the US Military in WWII, he knew what he was doing, because it’s really fun to eat! Palermitani usually prepare anelletti as a “pasta al forno,” or baked pasta dish, with peas, meat (beef/veal), egg, caciocavallo cheese, and tomato sauce. Because anelletti are shaped like rings (anello is “ring” in Italian), they are often eaten to bring one prosperity.
