the clueless cook's handbook: pasta basics: does it matter what shape of pasta i use?

the clueless
cook's handbook:
does it matter what shape of pasta i use?

does it matter what shape of pasta i use?
The short answer is, not really. When you’re hungry and there’s nothing else in the house, you can pair your angel hair with meat sauce and it’ll probably taste just great, in your ravenous state that is. The longer answer is that certain sauces do seem to go a bit better with certain kinds of pasta. That angel hair, for instance, would be better matched with a lighter sauce, since it’s a fairly delicate pasta. The meat sauce, on the other hand, would be perfect with a fat noodle pasta, like pappardelle for instance, or a tube pasta like penne or ziti.

A short guide to pairing pasta shape and sauce…
Simple tomato sauce | spaghetti, linguini and other medium-sized pastas
Hearty vegetable or meat sauce | fat noodles like tagliatelle or pappardelle, or tube shapes like penne and ziti
Cream sauces | fatter noodles like fettucine, pappardelle, tagliatelle
Light sauces (white clam sauce or olive-oil sauces, for instance) | angel hair, vermicelli, spaghetti and other thinner noodle pastas
Butter sauces | medium-size noodles like spaghetti, linguini, fettucine

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