It is descended from the extremely thin capelli d'angelo of the Renaissance,[2] but is a flat, thick pasta traditionally made of egg and flour (usually one egg for every 100 grams or 3.5 ounces of flour).

At about 6.5 mm (1⁄4 inch), it is wider and thicker than, but similar to, the tagliatelle typical of Bologna,[3][4] which are more common elsewhere in Italy and is often used as a synonym.

The terms fettucce and fettuccelle are often used as synonyms for this pasta, but the former term is more precisely used for wider (about 13 mm or 1⁄2 inch) and the latter for narrower (about 3 mm or 1⁄8 inch) forms of the same pasta.

[4] A famous dish made with fettuccine is fettuccine Alfredo, a simple dish of pasta, Parmesan cheese and butter which was created and named at a restaurant in Rome in the early 20th century as a tableside "performance".

[6] It is popular in the United States, where it is made with cream, although almost unknown in Italy.