Pasta and noodle shapes

Pasta and noodle shapes

Choose the pasta shape that holds the sauce you want to eat

The principle

This isn't about looking fancy: each shape is a tool. Long, smooth strands slide through a light sauce. Tubes and shells catch the chunks. Knotted or twisted shapes hold thick sauces. Asian noodles work on the same principle, with the springy texture you want for a broth or a wok.

The main families

Long and smooth: spaghetti, linguine, capellini. For oil-, butter-, or smooth tomato-based sauces, and for seafood.
Tubes and elbows: penne, rigatoni, macaroni. For thick sauces, ragùs, and baked dishes. The ridges catch the sauce.
Knotted and twisted: fusilli, gemelli, trofie. For pesto and creamy sauces that cling.
Filled: ravioli, tortellini, manti. For clear broths or light sauces that don't drown the filling.
Asian noodles: ramen (wavy, holds up in broth), udon (thick and soft), soba (buckwheat, thinner), rice noodles (translucent, for stir-fries and soups).

Pitfalls

1. Putting a heavy sauce on capellini: they collapse and lose their bite
2. Cooking rice noodles like Italian pasta: they don't like being boiled for long
3. Draining the pasta too early: the starch in the cooking water is what binds the sauce
4. Forgetting that the shape should serve the sauce, not the other way around

The benchmark

If sauce pools at the bottom of the plate after you've eaten the pasta, the shape was too smooth or the sauce too thin. If the pasta is drowning and gluey, the sauce was too thick or the cooking went on too long.