Pasta – the ultimate comfort food, the fast and easy solution to meals, a crowd pleaser and kids love them too. With so many different pasta options in different shapes and sizes at the grocery store, it’s just mind boggling to choose the right one for your sauce. So how do we differentiate which goes with the right sauce?
Firstly, let’s get to know some of the common pasta shapes found in the stores. The better you know, the better you’ll be able to pair them up.
Let’s start with the most common:
- 1. Spaghetti – Thin and long, it goes well with tomato or a meat sauce such as marinara, meatballs and mushrooms. As the noodles tangle easily, many swirls it around a fork to catch it.
- 2. Linguine – Long, thin and ribbon-like, this pasta originated from Liguria. Commonly used in a combination of seafood and clam sauce, it also pairs well with red sauces like arrabbiata and marinara.
- 3. Fettucine – A thick and long pasta and slightly thicker than linguine, it goes perfectly with rich, meat-based sauces, ragu, marinara and chicken cacciatore.
- 4. Macaroni –Also known as elbow pasta, it is the classic choice for macaroni and cheese. The tiny tube holds the cheese sauce well. Or you can pop them in your soups, add it into your vegetable salad or top it on your frittata.
- 5. Farfalle – Shaped like little bow-ties, farfalle has a pinched center with flat leaves. Suitable with a variety of sauces, it is great also in cold pasta salads. Try making a vegetable sauce to go with it. The bow shape will keep the kids entertained that they will not know what they are eating.
- 6. Penne – small tubes cut diagonally, with or without ridges, they are great with chunky tomato, meat or vegetable sauces and cream. However, keep the consistency of sauces less chunky so it is able to flow into the hollow tubes and imbue them with flavour.
- 7. Lasagna – Garfield’s favourite pasta, it features a long, flat, rectangular shape. Commonly baked as a casserole layered with noodles, sauce, cheese and other fillings. Delish!
- 8. Ravioli – pillows of dough that’s filled with cheese, meat, veggies or seafood and topped with sauce, added in soups or just drizzled with olive oil. Go decadent with a lobster ravioli!
What’s your favourite pasta shape and sauce?