Thursday 13: Thirteen favorite pasta shapes

What's worse than researching pasta shapes late at night when you're hungry? Nothing. Yep, nothing. Remind me to write food-related posts earlier in the day, would you?

Meanwhile, here's my Thursday 13 for this week, my 13 favorite pasta shapes. It's important to remember there are really NO bad pasta shapes, just ones I prefer over others... just so we're clear on that.

What are your favorite pasta shapes?



1. Orrichiette. Always been a big favorite for me, since it's slightly unusual and hard to come by. Fun medium-size ear-shapes that sauces ahere to quite well.

2. Capellini... Angel hair. My favorite twirlable pasta. Love the thinness of the noodle; it wraps so delightfully around my fork tines!

3. Orzo. A wonderful little shape to make a pasta salad. Or a kind of fake-o risotto. It goes over big with the young lad around here with just butter and salt. Me, I need to throw in some parmesan.

4. Ravioli. Stuffed with just about anything. Well, usually cheese... goat cheese, ricotta... or butternut squash. A great favorite.

5. Pipe rigate. Nice and fat. I actually like making macaroni and cheese with this shape, since it's bigger than the usual macaroni noodle... more space for the cheese sauce to latch on to!


6. Cavatappi. Sort of like fusilli, just shorter.

7. Ditalini. I love this short stubby shape much better than longer tubes, for some reason.

8. Gigli. (No, not the movie!) Almost a work of art. I think an alternate name for these is "lilies." Which totally makes sense.

9. Radiatore. A great shape for chunky meaty sauces to cling to.


10. Small shells. This is my favorite shape for making "macaroni" salad--the kind with peas and little cubes of cheddar.

11. Tortellini. Again with the stuffed. Hooray.

12. Fusilli. Long and spiraly. It reminds me of what I wanted my hair to look like in middle school... long and spiraly! At least in my old age I've come to terms with the fact that my hair is actually angel hair!

13. Gnocchi. Yes, this is an pasta shape, separate from the actual potato-based dumplings that I love as well.

Happy Thursday 13! Now go make a big bowl of pasta for lunch. I know I will!!

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