The month of March is National Noodle Month. However, noodles should be celebrated all the time. To celebrate National Noodle Month, we are going to review some of the most popular pasta shapes and provide you with a definitive and 100 percent correct ranking and review of the pasta shapes.
You might ask yourself what qualifications we have to be making this list, but I (Madison) have pajama pants that have pasta shapes and their names all over them. My dad is also an Italian chef, so I have 20 years of eating Italian food and pasta on my resume as well.
And I (Toby) am a staunch critic of pastas solely based on their shapes because I am a firm believer that the shape somehow alters the taste and the texture of the pasta. I also have two Italian roommates so I guess there’s that as well.
Penne:
Madison: 10 → Penne, to me, is second to none. It is my favorite pasta shape, my ride or die. Penne is even better when it’s mini. It also tastes good with any sauce or meal but my personal favorite is penne with pesto or penne with vodka sauce.
Toby: 8 → I am generally not fond of hollow pastas, but penne is one of the few exceptions, mainly because penne in my opinion is the best shape to make baked chicken alfredo. I’ve tried making chicken alfredo with a lot of pasta shapes but penne simply has the best consistency.
Spaghetti
Madison: 6.5 → I am not particularly fond of spaghetti, but I recognize why it’s a classic and need to respect it as such. I much prefer angel hair (capellini) over spaghetti. I just feel like it’s over-done, but I of course love spaghetti and meatballs and that meal will always have a special place in my heart.
Toby: 10 → I absolutely love spaghetti. Yes, yes I know it’s a basic pasta but you can simply never go wrong with spaghetti especially if you’re a college student. If you do not feel like making an elaborate dinner, boil up some spaghetti, three frozen meatballs in Rao’s Homemade Sauce (and personally I add a spoonful of red pepper flakes as well) and you have yourself dinner! Top it off with some pecorino romano or parmesan cheese and enjoy.
Cavatappi
Madison: 8 → Cavatappi is a less common pasta shape, but it’s one of the best. The spirals mix with any kind of sauce it’s in to flow perfectly around the noodle and cover it all. However, I do prefer cavatappi with a meat sauce like bolognese because otherwise, I feel like the noodle can overtake the sauce, but the addition of other components like a bolognese has made for a really good balance all throughout.
Toby: 7 → Cavatappi is a good substitute for macaroni in mac and cheese since I hate the macaroni shape with a passion. As you might realize by the end of this, I dislike short pastas so where macaroni has just one spiral, cavatappi has a few making it not as short.
Bowtie (Farfalle) (
Madison: 2 → I do not enjoy this shape of pasta. I really consider a pasta shape’s ability to hold onto sauce and this one has zero ability to do so. If it’s in front of me, I will eat it, but I will for sure be disappointed the entire time I do so.
Toby: 2 → I simply hate the shape of bowtie pasta. It is too flat and it’s also difficult to pick up with a fork. I prefer not to have a full workout while trying to eat.
Rigatoni
Madison: 4 → Not my favorite, not my least favorite. Nothing special to me. Similar to penne, I prefer it in its tinier form of Mezzi Rigatoni.
Toby: 5 → I am going to go with Madison on this one. The only reason I gave it a five is because the name is kind of nice.
Orecchiette
Madison: 9 → Orecchiette isn’t the type of pasta I would eat with just anything, but the meal I will eat it with is to die for. Orecchiette with broccoli rabe, sausage, cannellini beans and diced tomatoes makes for one of my favorite comfort meals. It is so delicious in the winter and the small ear-shaped pastas make for a great pairing to the other ingredients in the dish.
Toby: 3 → Another style with weird shapes and this one has the added disadvantage of having an unpronounceable name. Enough said!
Rotini
Madison: 1 → Rotini is worse than bowtie. I would never pick it up for myself.
Toby: 1 → This is definitely the worst on this list, I despise the spirals and once again it is difficult to pick with a for. The one was simply for playing, so consider that a zero.
Some honorable mentions for amazing pasta shapes include fettucini, stringozzi and pappardelle and some dishonorable mentions include orzo, gemelli, cavatelli and tortellini. Let us know what your favorite and least favorite pastas are by DMing the Mirror Instagram (@FairfieldMirror) and if you disagree with any of the ratings or want to see us rate other foods let us know!
Leave a Reply