Here’s a general approach to make sure your pasta is every bit as delicious as it should be. It’s best known however, for the popular dish fettuccine alfredo. The flat, ribbon-like shape of fettuccine makes it a sturdy pasta that can hold up to a variety of sauces. As a rule of thumb, you want to choose a pasta shape that will allow for every bite of pasta to include plenty of sauce as well as whatever ingredients-pieces of veggies, meat, nuts, anchovies, whatever-you chose to add to the dish. Capellini with Garlic, Lemon, and Parmesan. They go well with little cubes of guanciale or pancetta, too.' John Mattia, video editor. They seem to want to be combined with beans, which are similarly sized and have a complementary chewy texture. Or maybe a pool of white wine sauce or alfredo with no more angel hair to mop it all up. One of the most popular and recognisable pasta shapes in the world, penne are hollow tubes of pasta made either smooth ( lisce) or more commonly ridged (rigate) as they hold more sauce. Ditalini are shaped like decorative beads: very small but thick and, consequently, chewy. Symptoms may include a giant pile of peas or pancetta or mushrooms at the bottom of your bowl, after all your long noodles have been forked and twirled and slurped. You’ve experienced unbalanced bites before. Orecchiette: Little ears from Puglia, and an olive-and-tomato sauce. Handmade Shapes: Things like orecchiette or pici. Stelline: Tiny stars, and creamy asparagus-and-mint soup. Pastina: small shapes like stars or tubes. It’s all about knowing which pasta shapes pair best with any given sauce, providing you with a beautifully-balanced bite every time. Midolline: Bits of pasta that look like melon seeds, and a radicchio-based soup to go with them.
Linguine Long, thin, flat linguine noodles fall somewhere between the thickness of fettuccine and spaghetti. It pairs particularly well with meat and vegetable dishes. Farfalle is a versatile pasta shape that can be used in most recipes that call for a short pasta. We’re just going to help your pasta game get stronger, because really, a stronger pasta game means a stronger life. The fun shape of this pasta earned it its nickname bow tie pasta. (Though, a prison built from pasta doesn't sound all that bad now that we think about it.) Or tell your parents. We’re not going to send you to pasta prison.
But let us say this: if you’re using one pasta shape exclusively, for all your sauces, you’re messing up.ĭon’t worry. You might be the kind of person who declares allegiance to certain pasta shapes, be they short or long or curly or bowtie-y.