What's your favorite pasta shape..and why?

Now weirdly, while I know in some abstract sense that there are a bazillion different types of Asian noodles, in practice they’re a binary for me. Do I have any, do I not. There’s some psychological research to be done here, I’m sure!

Aaah, you need to branch out, Grasshopper!

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To what?

To be clear, I’m not saying I’m some sort of typic or brand noodle loyalist – just the reverse! As I say, my stocking criterion is just “do I have noddles, even of any kind”. Whereas with pasta, I’m mildly anxious if I don’t have at least spaghetti, penne, macaroni, and conchiglie at any given time. And likely also have lasagne, fusille, farfalle, some token sort of wholewheat pasta, conchigliette or some other sort of soup-gauge thing, and then wonder why they’ve not all getting used as fast as I somehow imagined they would be.

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How great that you have a “pasta wardrobe”! I do too. Of course.

At the moment my stock is:

Spaghetti (Rao’s—I’m liking this brand)
Mafaldine
Papardelle (fresh and dried)
Tajarin
Orecchiette
Creste di Gallo
Penne
Orzo
Moghrabieh (Lebanese pasta that’s close to pearl couscous)

And:

Soba noodles
Rice noodles

A pasta stash of different shapes and varieties opens up so many possibilities. It’s really, really helpful when I’m staring down the week’s CSA vegetables and wondering what dishes I can make.

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My pasta wardrobe, plus refrigerated ravioli,


I’ve also been buying refrigerated udon and chow mein noodles to make fried noodles at home.

I tend to buy pastas, noodles, dumplings and other starches I haven’t made (and/or tried) before when I visit Eataly, Greek stores and Polish stores.

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I have had the fregola sarda (spelling?) in your photo. What do you do with yours? I remember enjoying its toastiness but can’t seem to recall what I made with mine.

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We might need another thread on the subject of “pasta wardrobes.” :laughing:Something like: Which pastas are in your pantry?

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It was my first time making it. My godfather is Sardinian so I thought I’d try it.

I didn’t use it in a traditional way. Last week I made it with a mushroom , white wine and cream sauce.

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Ack! I forgot I always have dried udon in my kitchen cabinets as well!

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Duh…

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Oh my. Daring! Of all the Italians to defy the food traditions of, the Sicilians! :smiley:

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I’ll feel very left out, as I have a disorderly heap on top of my top row of kitchen cupboards! Doorism! :slight_smile:

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Impressively multifarious, multi-shaped, and multilingual!

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Disorderly heap? Pantry? That can be one and the same at our house. :laughing: You have company.

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Entropy aside, I think there’s a real-estate hierarchy here.

  • Walk-in pantry – a small room
  • Pantry – a large floor-to-ceiling cupboard with multiples shelves
  • Cupboard – half-height or smaller, one or two shelves, with an enclosing door

My pasta doesn’t make it into any of these, but fights for space with the extractor duct, a couple of boxes and packets of breakfast cereal, and some random boxes on top of the third one.

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Sardinians! In Sardinia, north of Sicily!
Fregola with clams is a traditional Sardinian fregola recipe. https://ouritaliantable.com/fregola-with-clams/

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D’oh! Who knew there’d be more than one Italian island beginning with ‘S’, when hastening to make a smartarsed – not to be confused with smart-arselled – comment without reading the original properly. Oops! :blush:

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Also, couscous (I know it’s not a pasta) is still eaten in Sicily (the island used to be called Emirate of Sicily).

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Salina is another Italian island that starts with S! I’m sure there are dozens! Maybe hundreds! :it:

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I bought some rice vermicelli today . :slightly_smiling_face:

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