Pasta Shapes

[Fat Guy]

Was checking on gemelli and found a couple of nice sites running down the pasta shapes:

http://www.ilovepasta.org/shapes.html

http://www.foodsubs.com/PastaShapes.html

[jhlurie]

The foodsubs site seems to have a far more exotic selection than the ilovepasta site.  There are three or four varities there I'd never heard of.  I wonder how hard it is to make the more exotic shapes.

(Edited by jhlurie at 10:10 pm on Nov. 2, 2001)

[Jason Perlow]

I dig the torchio and the gigli.

[Stone]

I had always thought there was some rhyme or reason to the numbering system on pasta. Then I saw something on FoodTV, and I think it said that Ronzoni (or one of the big American companies) just assigned the numbers randomly for administrative purposes and everyone else followed suit.

[Schielke]

I dig the torchio and the gigli.

I had myself some gigli last night.

I really dig the shape.

Ben

[melkor]

Of the shapes on foodsubs the only interesting one I can reliably produce is strozzapreti...

You roll out fairly thin pasta into long sheets, slice the pasta the long way into strips about an inch wide. Take the end of one of the strips and place it across your left hand with the end at the thumb edge of your hand and the rest of the strip hanging down past your hand. Place your finger tips from your right hand against the pasta and slide your right hand forward against your left, the pasta will roll up and when you have your right palm against your left finger tips, tear the pasta from the rest of the strip and start on the next one. So you are rolling the pasta across its short edge, on a slight diagonal. This is nearly impossible to describe, but if you somehow manage to decipher these directions the end result will look like this

[lamington]

I haven't found a previous thread about this, so what pasta shapes do you like and why? I'm sure we must have both logical preferences and aesthetic predelictions:)

I must admit I'm very much a no.1 spaghetti guy. But recently I returned to tagliatelle, finally overcoming the 1980s trauma of too many carbonaras So who likes what? Penne because they're holey, farfalle cos they're pretty, orrechiette cos they take a sauce well... and more...?

[Jason Perlow]

I like wide noodles, whether you call them Tagliatelle or something else in your neck of the woods. Double wide "miniskirt" as well. Fantastic with meat sauces.

I like Bucatini. It's more or less replaced spaghetti and linguine in our household.

I like radiatore, particularly in Mac and Cheese.

Gemelli is great with seafood sauces.

Edited May 9, 2006 by Jason Perlow (log)

[tupac17616]

For me, it's bucatini. I love its toothsomeness when properly cooked.

[dockhl]

Radiatore, Tagliatelle, Gemelli, ORCCHIETTE...... ...........

love them all. Minipenne, too.

But the pasta of my youth, in tomato soup, is tubetini.........

absolutely NOT TO BE FOUND in California...........

tubetini, with a little browned butter

All the rest are pedestrian............

[lamington]

I forgot that we might need a glossary to cover the regional differences too!

So what's with bucatini? I used to hate what we called tubular spaghetti when i was a teenager. You think i should try it again? LOL.

[kellytree]

- spaghetti (barilla number 5 or de cecco number 12!!!)

- corkscrew pasta from de cecco

[petite tête de chou]

Pappardelle, rigatoni and penne are my favorites. Spaghetti-type of noodles have never really done it for me. Not sure why, actually.

[Carlovski]

Penne has to be the most used for me - supremely versatile and takes both tomato and creamy sauces well.

Orichiette (Probably spelt that wrong!) I love for it's dense texture and good 'bite'.

Papardelle with braised meat sauces or also maldafine (Slightly narrower than pappardelle with crinkly edges)

As for the long thin pastas I'm a linguine guy - hardly ever use spaghetti.

I am a sucker for buying new and interesting shapes though. I bought some huge spiral things recently - no idea on the name. Wasn't to keen though - A slight wormy feeling on the tongue!

[sanrensho]

Penne for us too. Regular spaghetti (Barilla No. 5, I believe) comes in a close second. Raviolini are also popular with my kids.

[Megan Blocker]

Penne, bucatini, spaghetti, campanelle, orechiette. Yum!

[srhcb]

My GS Zack, (2 1/2) likes "Choo-Choo Wheels".

SB (aka Rotelle)

[golden brown]

Don't know the technical term, but as kids we called them wagon wheels. Love the texture. Easy to eat. Don't fall off the fork.

[Brad Ballinger]

Capellini, Bucatini, Oricchiette, Orzo.

[rooftop1000]

Full length fusilli (my friend called them worms) #9 thin spaghetti and medium shells. I like the shells because some stick together so they cook chewier than the separate ones.

and...Acini Pepe (peppercorns) for breakfast with mik and LOTS of butter

tracey

[maggiethecat]

My current fave is rachette -- tennis rackets. Radiatore-style, but you're so ready for the Italian Open.

[Mandarin]

Strozzapreti - a speciality of Romagna -twisted strips of pasta about 4-5cm long. I like the name - it means strangled priest. One of the legends created to explain the origin of the name goes back to the tradition of the women from Romagna preparing this type of pasta for the local priest, while the husbands, evidently a little bit more anticlerical, wished the priest would choke while he was stuffing himself with it.

[ludja]

I love oriechette, as mentioned above, for it toothsomeness and the way it captures small chunks of sauce. The first pasta dish I made with these was with sausage and broccoli raab and it is still a favorite.

For similar reasons reasons I like gemelli which has two (twinned) short pieces of pasta fused together. This also works well with chunky small pieces of sauce.

Long, slippery pieces of paparadelle are classic and delicious with ragus.

I love orzo as a side dish in the summer--dressed after cooking with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and chopped up oil-cured olives and parsley. It's easy, delicious and goes with almost anything.

I must try bucatini--this fits well with carbonara, no?

Edited May 11, 2006 by ludja (log)

[Jenny McClure]

I like farfalle, especially when there is a good bite in "tie" part. I also really enjoy angel hair. So light and forme, easier to eat than spaghetti.

[Brad Ballinger]

I must try bucatini--this fits well with carbonara, no?

←

I believe spaghetti is the "default" pasta for carbonara, but I could be wrong. Bucatini is for amatriciana.