I have the responsibility most days for evening meals and so, because my skillz in the kitchen are a bit limited, most of our meals are variations on a theme of pasta and usually something that can be put in a foodbox and taken to work the next day.

Today’s lunch (sausage cube & butternut squash in a tomato sauce with gemelli) got me thinking about what the best pasta is. Would my lunch have been improved if I had used Penne? Would it have been a mistake to use the pasta shells that always seem to contain random pockets of water despite draining?

Obviously some dishes just _need_ a specific pasta, but what is the best general purpose pasta? I’m currently in Team Gemelli (both easy to drain AND a fun shape), but my heart still belongs to spaghetti.

IMHO almost every dish tastes better with the correct pasta.

For general use – Waitrose Pennoni Rigati – really nice & chunky. Converted loads of people to it down the years.

I eat a lot of pasta.

If you care for authenticity there is generally an accepted form for whatever dish you’re making, like penne or conchigli which will hold thick sauces like bolognaise.  Spag bol is a no-no, spaghetti is really for lighter or creamier sauces

But I’m not Gino De Campo and just grab whatever takes my fancy at a given moment, fusilli is my usual go-to.  I’m not a huge fan of spaghetti because it doesn’t hold the types of sauces I prefer, if I’m making something spaghetti-esque I’ll use, uh, the stuff that’s like spaghetti but a bit thicker, the name’s fallen out of my head.

I think quality is more important than type.  De Cecco is about the best dry supermarket pasta you can get.

shape is important but also important to know when to use fresh pasta and when to use dried.

Personal dried pasta favourites – mafalde / mafaldine, carries more sauce that your average ribbon, papardelle with a rich meat sauce, casarecce – I like some texture to the pasta. For what you’re making, I’d just work a bit harder with conchiglie and get the water out (we’ve got a colander with a lid that you can put on and shake about to help with that.

(and +1 to spending a bit extra to get one or two above supermarket basics – bronze die cut gives rougher pasta that hold sauce better)

Oh yeah,

Consider gnocchi.  It’s a handy substitute for pasta and cooks in no time, I always have some on hand for when I’m in a hurry.  I like making sauces from scratch, but you can make Pasta Ding with a jar of sauce and a pan of gnocchi inside of three minutes.

Penne.

For what you’re making, I’d just work a bit harder with conchiglie and get the water out

Having some cooking water in with the sauce is not necessarily a bad thing if you’re pre-mixing rather than serving pasta with the sauce dolloped on top.  I find that dumping it in a colander, back into the empty pan and then into the colander a second time is “good enough.”  Your suggestion sounds like a good idea so long as you’ve not overcooked it.

Fusilli

Penne.

I agree about di Cecco, it’s probably the most easily available decent dried pasta, and well worth the little extra.

I tend to use mezzi rigatoni or penne, just try to use something that works with the sauce. But if you find yourself with just spaghetti to go with your ragu it’ll be fine. I rarely use spaghetti, the stuff you can readily get is just too insubstantial, I’ll use spaghettoni if I’ve been lucky enough to find any, or maybe linguini or bucatini.

serving pasta with the sauce dolloped on top

Don’t.

The only time you need to be meticulous about draining pasta is when you’re not dressing it, using it later in a salad for example.

But I’m not Gino De Campo and just grab whatever takes my fancy at a given moment,

Listened to an interesting (if a bit full on) podcast with Dan Pashman – who has decided there is no current best pasta shape so invented a new one – Cascatelli.

The upshot of item though was that pasta and its an associated sauces are far less established and ‘authentic’ than we’d like to believe. So while we like to think (or people like to tell use)  certain shapes have to be paired with certain sauces the reality is a bit more fluid.  Dishes you’d imagine were standard classics, handed down from Nonna to Nonna  are both quite modern inventions and have been really quite changeable in their recipe over the years. Theres no mention of Carbonara prior to the 1950s for instance (probably a dish that arose from the availability of American GI’s rations after the war)  and there only really been broad agreement on what the recipe actually is in the last 20 years or so – until people change their mind of course and reject the current recipe for something considered more authentic at that time.

Dishes like Assassins Spaghetti (which is ace incidentally, give it a go) – until 5 years ago there were only 3 restaurants in just one town that had ever actually served it.

Dishes like Assassins Spaghetti (which is ace incidentally, give it a go)

I must give that a try. It looks quite horrible but people seem really keen on it.

It looks quite horrible but people seem really keen on it.

? It looks like spaghetti in a tomato sauce. I once made Puttanesca with yellow and green tomatoes (becuase thats what  had) – now that was not appealing to the eye – Genuinely looked like puke on a plate.

What it reminds be of a bit is the caramelised edges of the lasagna.

? It looks like spaghetti in a tomato sauce

Only if you’ve somehow managed to burn your spaghetti and reduce your sauce to within an inch of its life!

Am I thinking of something else here or have the YouTube videos I’ve seen been some sort of hoax?

Trofie is my favourite, not that easy to find in the Uk, but available from Waitrose or Amazon.

Only if you’ve somehow managed to burn your spaghetti and reduce your sauce to within an inch of its life!

From reading (and I only learned of it from this thread 20 minutes ago), that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do?

[EDIT: apologies, that was your point I see.]

Farfalle.

The “authentic” Ragu Bolognese was only decided upon about 20 years ago AFAIK.

But it definitely tastes better when cooked in with a flatter pasta like Tagliatelle or Paperdelle.

Home made pasta is so nice and easy I recommend everyone to try it. You won’t care about the shape 😜

We used to be able to buy one type that was like tagliatelle but with one wavy edge. It was perfecto for pesto pasta.

Not found it for years now… Very sad

Generally we stick to spaghetti, rigatoni, macaroni and spirali

Home made pasta is so nice and easy I recommend everyone to try it.

I tried it.  Our experiences differ.

I think home made pasta, like home-made pesto and home-made hummus, falls down at the hurdle of ‘can I really be arsed?’

The answer for the OP is Fusilli. Except for Spaghetti Xxx dishes and Lasagna Xxx dishes.

Penne isn’t bad but Fusilli is Il Capo.

Except for Spaghetti Xxx dishes

I know what we’re all thinking.

I think home made pasta, like home-made pesto and home-made hummus, falls down at the hurdle of ‘can I really be arsed?’

Yeah, I can see the point if you’re going to fill your own ravioli or whatever but not otherwise when dried pasta can be so good.

In no particular order, and depending on what its served with

Radiatori

Mafaldine

Orzo

Tagliatelle

Spaghetti

In truth, I haven’t found a pasta I don’t like…

I know what we’re all thinking.

When I was a kid, my older brother told me that spaghetti was made from worms, so it took me years to summon up the courage to eat spaghetti, but I got over that. Then, years later, someone told me that spaghetti loops were made from circumcised foreskins. Even then I knew it was just someone ****ing with me but I have never eaten that **** to this day, gives me nightmares of Armin Meiwes just thinking about it.

De Cecco or Barilla is my go to….

Currently in Italy and friends here (Italians) haven’t snubbed me for using it,so it can’t be that bad.

Want to kill an hour or two?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pasta?wprov=sfla1

In truth, I haven’t found a pasta I don’t like…

If you just mean the shape I totally agree – some shapes work better than others for particular sauces but whatever you’ve got in the cupboard is just fine if you don’t have the “right” one.

I’d still avoid the really cheap options, I think the fairly small price premium for something like de Cecco rather than Barilla is well worth paying. Personally I wouldn’t waste a sauce on any of the supermarket ultra cheap offerings like Tesco’s for 28p per 500g. Though if you’re on a very tight budget and want to put a filling meal on your family’s plates I can see that’d be an attractive option.

I reckon they’re all pretty much the same personally, except that Fusilli is the best shape for handling, draining, and for how it holds sauces etc. I’ve pretty much stopped using anything except fusilli and gnochi, I won’t say it’s identical making say fusilli carbonara but it’s easier to bloody eat that’s for sure.

**** every sort of pasta that’s not easy to cram into your mouth

Whatever the hollow “spaghetti” is called, for me, but I think really that’s because you can’t get a Tesco value version and you tend to get it in either nice UK restaurants or in Italy

tbh you only need tagliatelle and spaghetti. Dried, not the so-called fresh stuff from supermarkets which is grim

making it yourself does take time but very worth it if you’re cooking for the family. My pasta machine has been used 100s of times over the years

Yes to hollow spaghetti – came here to say just that – Bucatini – Waitrose do one in the their #1 range. It’s just fab. They do a fusilli bucati too which is also great.  Fusilli in our house is called Fustupid

Best results to cook pasta a minute less than al-dente and then to put it in the pan with the sauce to finish off and it absorbs the richness of flavor from the sauce.

Sauces need to be cooked for a long time so they are not too wet

Gonna try the assassins spaghetti

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/no1-bucatini/613528-499356-499357

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/no1-fusilli-bucati/609198-499354-499355

Talking Pasta –

Rachel Roddy in the Graun has great pasta recipes:

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/jul/03/rachel-roddy-a-z-of-pasta-book-extract

and this was a great quote from the Graun sports pages this weekend…..tho De Zerbi might be a bit happier after this afto’s result

“De Zerbi’s downbeat demeanour in media dealings is not helping; for the past several weeks he’s resembled a man who ordered penne pomodoro but got alphabetti spaghetti instead.”

You can get hollow spaghetti? 🤯🤯🤯

I do ragu duties, having watched countless YTs and eaten lots in Bologna. My Mrs does the lassagne bit then we divide it up and get about 8-10 portions out of two packs of meat plus the other indgredients.  I never tire of it and it costs very little.

Tagliatelle.

Solid all-rounder.

But I totally agree that the notion of correct pasta for sauce is correct, even at the level of everyday cooking. Some sauces simply don’t work anywhere near as well with certain shapes vs the ‘correct’ one.

Garofalo. surely, it’s a bike forum.