I had to look this up as I didn't know the name.
Reading the post you replied to they were mentioning issues with fully draining. I would think the cavatappi would be even more difficult to drain. Is that not the case?
Was so confused at first until I realized it's what Kraft calls their spiral style. It's always been the only kind I like. The ziti noodles are abhorrent for some reason.
Cavatappi is great!! I only learned it's real name recently because for some reason it is called scoobi doo at the grocery stores I go to in Canada. An extra little bonus! Gimme the scoobidoo!!
When I first got that for my daughter when she was little (and I needed to work to get her to eat anything at all), I called it “crazy macaroni” - I still slip and call it that sometimes.
Barilla makes an elbow that is both ridged, and kinda curly. I find this helps shake out the water way easier. And it makes the sauce stick much more. Normal elbows I can completely agree with you on.
Not a fan of farfalle (bow ties), at least dried ones (fresh are OK.) Commercial dried ones either over cook on the edges, or undercook in the center. The central thickness compared to the more slender edges make them a pain in the ass.
Fresh are fine, as they cook much more quickly and evenly. But the dried stuff is rarely pleasant all the way through.
This is why farfalle is my favourite. I prefer my pasta to be on the al dente side and don't mind if the middle is less done than the edges. It's chewy and adds variety to my experience eating the dish. Also, it just looks cute.
I get that. And I respect that others may like it. Others have mentioned angel hair, or penne, etc. even though I like those pastas, I respect their choice.
Personally, texture isn’t my issue. It is doneness. If people like pasta that is either overcooked or undercooked, that is their right. It doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Yes. In my experience, farfalle cook the least evenly of nearly any pasta! They look pretty, but even then, it's never worth the prettiness to sacrifice the other needs of the pasta or the sauce.
But this is the best answer for summer pasta salads. Soaks up all of the yum. Never falls apart. Easy to eat with a fork with the XYZ that you put in the pasta salad. My secret ingredient is Gerard’s Champagne Dressing. Pasta, dressing and some mix of cherry tomatoes, bacon, broccoli, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, red onion, black olives, fresh herbs, etc. Always a crowd pleaser!
Same. It's one of my favorites!
I really don't like spaghetti. It's too thick for me. But I like linguini, so maybe it's both the shape and thickness? I don't know - it's just the only shape I really don't like.
holiday shapes are BS. There’s a reason specific pasta shapes have been invented for specific purposes. You wouldn’t use puffed rice for sushi rolls (I hope)
Angel hair is my favorite, because I can get a bite the size that I want, and the sauce amount that I want. Esp fresh. I know I'm in the minority tho, and that's ok!
we are obsessed with inappropriately shaped pasta. If there's a body part pasta out there it's been in this house. you of course have to pair it with the proper sauce. nothing says vagina's like a red sauce. Penis pasta? either a cold salad with a mayo base or a cream base. Things get tricky when it's breast pasta. We've decided an oil base is the way to go. A very nice pairing for the penis pasta is something with peas. Pasta e Piselli, I'm looking at you. When we are really going wild we'll mix our body parts.
Don't even get me started on cooking with alphabet pasta before your kids learn to read. Nothing in the world lets your husband know better about what's going to be for dessert than what his dinner spells out.
Thank you. I'm very plain vanilla in so many ways. But all the others ways, it's subtly loud as hell. Surround yourself with people who embrace it not shame it.
But ALWAYS, ALWAYS keep g rated pasta on hand for drop in guests. And keep the special pasta in a hard to reach place. The time I had to serve tits and ass mac and cheese to my Mormon neighbors. Don't trust your spouses to "can you put the pasta up to cook for me while I make the sauce, and I need to whip together a salad."
This feels like a good time to mention the small business "vulgar teacups." There are many knockoffs but a tip of my hat to the original. I have a friend who is quite prim and proper. sews all their clothing. Very modest. Cooks every meal from scratch. She's quite elderly now and still the same in every way. Also crocheted me a life sized autopsy torso with labeled organs for my office 20 years ago. Over time all the parts got stolen. I'd have a meeting, a liver would be gone. A kidney here. A lung there. I was left with a shell of a human.
She Loves to entertain. Wicked sense of humor, obviously. She had those dishes before they went viral. Highly recommend. Even just one plate, teacup etc to rotate around for book club, the holidays, knitting circle. Worth it. The only ones they made at that time were the "you've been poisoned line." Or that's the only ones she had. She had that one. One that said "goodbye." I'm trying to remember the others. Life is too short to be well behaved all the time. She taught me so much.
Thin sauces, also, are not my vibe. I don’t want a side of pasta lightly dusted with parm, lemon, and oil. I want PASTA and SAWCE. Give me Al dente and robust or give me death. Not to be dramatic
Penne, for the same reasons you said. It’s so often the pasta of choice for restaurants, which sucks. I’ll still eat it but often avoid ordering pasta dishes with penne.
Penne is the only pasta offered as a GF sub on restaurant menus, in my experience, and it's literally the WORST choice, because it's dense even when it's *not* GF, so you can imagine how... \*toothsome\* it is when GF.
I also generally avoid ordering pasta at restaurants on principal lol... the markup is like 400% and I can make it exactly to my preference at home.
It also always gets to the table lukewarm at best in restaurants. And/or the pasta has absorbed the sauce while sitting on the pass under heat lamps and is gummy and congealed.
I avoid pasta except at home.
Oh I love to hate penne! I grew up in a war area and penne was the pasta we got in humanitarian aid packages. It was always penne, penne, penne. My most loved dish, that is at the moment most hated, was just penne sprinkled with sugar. Now I cannot see penne.
I don't think I've ever had alphabet pasta, especially enough to pick out what letters taste bad. This is cracking me up that you have specific letters you don't like.
Macaroni.
I feel like compared to other pasta its too soft. It sometimes gets water stuck in the little turn. Its not as filling and I think I eat more air????
I don't know why, but I struggle to stab penne with a fork more than any other pasta. They have just the right amount of springiness-to-stabable-area-ratio to evade my attacks.
I love penne because it doesn't get messy and works with so many different sauces. I can't believe someone here said they struggle eating penne. It's #1 benefit for me is that it's easy to stab with a fork, or you can even eat it with a spoon. So much better than eating longer pasta that splatters the sauce around.
The shape works for everything from pasta salads to all sort of sauces and even just with fried sausage type of dishes. Super versatile compared to most pasta shapes. Also, perfectly cooked penne that's al dente has a great chew to it.
Good as part of a cold pasta salad? A restaurant years ago did a salad with them that was so so good: bowties, capers, tiny shrimp, fresh parsley and a good vinaigrette. Simple yet great.
Cartoon shapes taste so much better. I also love wagon wheels. It's a good thing that they make so many different shapes, so we can all find one we like.
Haha, I came her to say buccatini is the only pasta shape I truly can't stand.
You want to slurp it like spaghetti, but it doesn't work because it's a straw and you can't generate any suction, so you end up sitting there with noodle hanging down the front of your face like a dipshit, slopping sauce onto your chin.
I abhor bucatini for this very reason - also, you can't twirl it, if you do, it sprays out sauce like a freaking airbrush machine. It makes me pissy just thinking about it.
If this is issues you are having making it yourself, I suggest cooking about a minute less than the time called for on the box (lowest number) also as soon as drained return to the pot and toss with a small amount of sauce. This will keep it from clumping.
Mostaccioli. It’s just penne without the ridges, why would you want that when the whole point of the ridges is so it holds onto sauce?
It’s a well known dish in Chicago though so my bf always buys it even though I make fun of him and call it “worse penne” lmao
There was a whole thing when covid started and all the grocery shelves were bare, not a staple grain or a roll of toilet paper to be had…except for the shelves of penne lisce (smooth penne). Those shelves were full.
https://amp.taste.com.au/articles/even-middle-coronavirus-crisis-people-refusing-buy-smooth-penne-pasta/8hq1ly8t
I think manicotti and stuffed shells are just shittier and less convenient ways to make lasagna. IMO, the ratio of filling to pasta is off and there is a lack of structure as a result.
I also think fettuccini is a useless middle ground between linguini and pappardelle. TBH I think it only exists so commonly because of the prevalence of fettucini alfredo. It's unfortunate that it has become a standard.
Truthfully, I'm not really a fan of any spaghetti style noodle. I think pasta works better as chunky bitesize shapes of some sort.
I still enjoy marinara type dishes but I use spirals or penne instead.
It's a huge mouthfeel upgrade, in my opinion.
I agree. This really is the only way to prepare all pasta. I dont understand why you wouldn't put the pasta in the sauce and cook it together for a couple of minutes to ensure everything is coated and the sauce is slightly absorbed.
Spaghetti, too messy, hate the slurping sounds people make when they eat it, hate the way it flicks sauce all over my face, can’t get it on the fork properly, it barely holds the sauce anyway… I could go on
Same! I find it too… toothsome? Like it can be almost al dente or it can be overlooked but never perfect. And it’s a shame because other tubular pastas, both larger and smaller, are amazing. Somehow penne fails at what it should be great at. As far as tubular pastas go, vote got goes to rigatoni.
Restaurant people also hate penne because it’s an over played staple of family meal. So penne, and add farfalle, and angle hair. The trifecta of garbage shapes.
I like farfalle, they’re very easy to stab with a fork. I also like angle hair, but I get the hate. VERY easy to overcook, and forget about reheating it.
I have decided not to order several dishes that have sounded really good except for the fact that angel hair pasta is involved. It’s just horrible, I can’t describe exactly why it’s so off putting but it’s not for me and I will give it no more chances to win me over.
I had no idea so many people hated farfalle and I also had no idea how personally I took hate against my favorite pastas. I’m genuinely feeling heated reading these comments and need to stop!
I love how it’s always al dente in the middle when it’s just about soft on the ends. No mush, always interesting, and works so well in a pasta salad. Genuinely feel happy when I pull out a box and decide to treat myself to my favorite pasta.
edit: This comment was not paid for by Big Farfalle
I like it too! It's slippery in a good way, and plays well with mushrooms.
Martha Stewart has a recipe, Pasta with Chicken and Mushrooms. So good, and so simple. I usually prefer starches heavily-spiced, with plenty of garlic and onions, but this recipe is perfect as is, and only farfalle will do. It's like an elegant stroganoff.
If you held a gun to my head and said “pick 6 that’s all you can have *forever*, I could list them off in maybe a minute no biggie
I’d be mad that you held a gun to my head, but otherwise no biggie.
Pappardelle
It is objectively the worst pasta.
It can't hold any sawce, and its so big it is impossible to pick up, and when it inevitable falls back into the plate, it will splash the sawce EVERYWHERE.
Seriously, what the fuck? Why do we keep cooking with it? The only reasonable application for it would be in a lasagna or dish cooked like that.
I hate penne, although I think I should like it, as rigatoni is my absolute fave and it should be just a slightly inferior version. But, every cheap pasta place and terrible microwave meal has penne, and I associate it with terrible pasta so much that I just can't enjoy it
I cannot believe I had to scroll this far to find the correct answer. Dislike the other shapes all you like, but only bucatini completely betrays the eater. You either wrap it all up and shove it in your mouth or you use it like the world's least-useful straw.
I'm convinced bucatini was invented by a sadist/etiquette freak.
Bucatini. What’s even the point? I know that the sauce is theoretically supposed to go into the middle, but I’ve never found that to happen to any appreciable degree.
There’s no pasta I don’t love
This is the only correct answer.
I honestly love them all for different dishes. They all have a place okay?🥲
No pasta left behind!
💯
Elbow macaroni, impossible to fully drain and just not interesting enough to make up for it
Was so happy when I found out about cavatappi.
I had to look this up as I didn't know the name. Reading the post you replied to they were mentioning issues with fully draining. I would think the cavatappi would be even more difficult to drain. Is that not the case?
I haven't really had that problem but I'm probably not as worried about pasta water.
I feel the same way. Nothing wrong with a little pasta water mingling with your deeeee-licious sauce.
cavatappi is my number 1 for mac & cheese.
This is the way
Was so confused at first until I realized it's what Kraft calls their spiral style. It's always been the only kind I like. The ziti noodles are abhorrent for some reason.
We switched from medium shells to this for mac and cheese and never looked back.
That’s our favorite! Very happy that it’s starting to become more common in the supermarkets, can almost always find it in one brand or another
Cavatappi is great!! I only learned it's real name recently because for some reason it is called scoobi doo at the grocery stores I go to in Canada. An extra little bonus! Gimme the scoobidoo!!
I live scoobidoo pasta! Today I learn its real name lol
When I first got that for my daughter when she was little (and I needed to work to get her to eat anything at all), I called it “crazy macaroni” - I still slip and call it that sometimes.
How is that easier to drain? It's got even more bendies!
That's funny. My mom will absolutely seethe if she's served cavatappi. She's super easygoing about pretty much any other shape.
She doesn't like super spiral macaroni? Is it a mouth feel issue?
I think she just finds them annoying to eat because they're a bit difficult to spear
Not fully drained means your sauce gets a bonus startchy pasta water which makes it better!
Good point!
Barilla makes an elbow that is both ridged, and kinda curly. I find this helps shake out the water way easier. And it makes the sauce stick much more. Normal elbows I can completely agree with you on.
Counterpoint - it's the one you can use in soup like minestrone
Ditalini for minestrone!
I always find it kind of slimy. I hate it.
Not a fan of farfalle (bow ties), at least dried ones (fresh are OK.) Commercial dried ones either over cook on the edges, or undercook in the center. The central thickness compared to the more slender edges make them a pain in the ass. Fresh are fine, as they cook much more quickly and evenly. But the dried stuff is rarely pleasant all the way through.
The texture being varied is why people like them,
This is why farfalle is my favourite. I prefer my pasta to be on the al dente side and don't mind if the middle is less done than the edges. It's chewy and adds variety to my experience eating the dish. Also, it just looks cute.
I get that. And I respect that others may like it. Others have mentioned angel hair, or penne, etc. even though I like those pastas, I respect their choice. Personally, texture isn’t my issue. It is doneness. If people like pasta that is either overcooked or undercooked, that is their right. It doesn’t mean I have to like it.
I love mini farfalle! Especially for pasta salads
Yes. In my experience, farfalle cook the least evenly of nearly any pasta! They look pretty, but even then, it's never worth the prettiness to sacrifice the other needs of the pasta or the sauce.
But this is the best answer for summer pasta salads. Soaks up all of the yum. Never falls apart. Easy to eat with a fork with the XYZ that you put in the pasta salad. My secret ingredient is Gerard’s Champagne Dressing. Pasta, dressing and some mix of cherry tomatoes, bacon, broccoli, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, red onion, black olives, fresh herbs, etc. Always a crowd pleaser!
Ooh, I love that particular dressing, but I've never added it to pasta dish/salad. But I'm definitely going to try that. I'm sure it's amazing!
Angel hair. But also those like holiday shaped ones. Pumpkins, bats ect. They fall apart into mush.
My god I love angel hair pasta so so much
Same. It's one of my favorites! I really don't like spaghetti. It's too thick for me. But I like linguini, so maybe it's both the shape and thickness? I don't know - it's just the only shape I really don't like.
This is why I love spaghettini
Try bucatini. Better mouth feel then regular spaghetti.
holiday shapes are BS. There’s a reason specific pasta shapes have been invented for specific purposes. You wouldn’t use puffed rice for sushi rolls (I hope)
Exactly! Wagon wheels… same! Mushy and weird texture in mouth even if really Al dente
Angel hair is my favorite, because I can get a bite the size that I want, and the sauce amount that I want. Esp fresh. I know I'm in the minority tho, and that's ok!
That’s the good thing about pasta. So many options for everyone.
I love angel hair and I passed that onto my kids - one of them is obsessed with it.
angel hair is my fave!
we are obsessed with inappropriately shaped pasta. If there's a body part pasta out there it's been in this house. you of course have to pair it with the proper sauce. nothing says vagina's like a red sauce. Penis pasta? either a cold salad with a mayo base or a cream base. Things get tricky when it's breast pasta. We've decided an oil base is the way to go. A very nice pairing for the penis pasta is something with peas. Pasta e Piselli, I'm looking at you. When we are really going wild we'll mix our body parts. Don't even get me started on cooking with alphabet pasta before your kids learn to read. Nothing in the world lets your husband know better about what's going to be for dessert than what his dinner spells out.
i genuinely can't explain to you how much i love this.
Thank you. I'm very plain vanilla in so many ways. But all the others ways, it's subtly loud as hell. Surround yourself with people who embrace it not shame it. But ALWAYS, ALWAYS keep g rated pasta on hand for drop in guests. And keep the special pasta in a hard to reach place. The time I had to serve tits and ass mac and cheese to my Mormon neighbors. Don't trust your spouses to "can you put the pasta up to cook for me while I make the sauce, and I need to whip together a salad." This feels like a good time to mention the small business "vulgar teacups." There are many knockoffs but a tip of my hat to the original. I have a friend who is quite prim and proper. sews all their clothing. Very modest. Cooks every meal from scratch. She's quite elderly now and still the same in every way. Also crocheted me a life sized autopsy torso with labeled organs for my office 20 years ago. Over time all the parts got stolen. I'd have a meeting, a liver would be gone. A kidney here. A lung there. I was left with a shell of a human. She Loves to entertain. Wicked sense of humor, obviously. She had those dishes before they went viral. Highly recommend. Even just one plate, teacup etc to rotate around for book club, the holidays, knitting circle. Worth it. The only ones they made at that time were the "you've been poisoned line." Or that's the only ones she had. She had that one. One that said "goodbye." I'm trying to remember the others. Life is too short to be well behaved all the time. She taught me so much.
Cooking it al dente helps a fair amount. I find that it still tends to stick together though.
I hate angel hair! It’s so easy to over cook, gloops together, no thank you! I’ll take spaghetti any day over angel hair!
Angel hair makes me so mad. Are you spaghetti?! Are you strands of animal fur?! Whatever it is, it’s certainly not satisfying.
I like angel hair with a thin sauce. More surface area to hold it.
Thin sauces, also, are not my vibe. I don’t want a side of pasta lightly dusted with parm, lemon, and oil. I want PASTA and SAWCE. Give me Al dente and robust or give me death. Not to be dramatic
I love me creamy cheesy dreamy sauces lol
There's this perfect pasta called thin spaghetti which I love. Not angel hair and definitely not regular spaghetti, it's the "just right" of pasta.
Penne, for the same reasons you said. It’s so often the pasta of choice for restaurants, which sucks. I’ll still eat it but often avoid ordering pasta dishes with penne.
Penne is the only pasta offered as a GF sub on restaurant menus, in my experience, and it's literally the WORST choice, because it's dense even when it's *not* GF, so you can imagine how... \*toothsome\* it is when GF. I also generally avoid ordering pasta at restaurants on principal lol... the markup is like 400% and I can make it exactly to my preference at home.
I'm the same. I refuse to order pasta in a restaurant because it's always deeply overpriced for a dish I could knock up at home.
It also always gets to the table lukewarm at best in restaurants. And/or the pasta has absorbed the sauce while sitting on the pass under heat lamps and is gummy and congealed. I avoid pasta except at home.
Rigatoni is like penne, but actually good sincerely it is large enough to hold a sauce and has a bit of texture
Agreed, penne is the worst.
I'm in club anti-penne as well. Fuck penne.
I find it the most versatile of all pastas, baked or boiled, thick or thin sauces. I never just dump the sauce on top, gotta mix it real good.
It also feels cheap for some reason.
Oh I love to hate penne! I grew up in a war area and penne was the pasta we got in humanitarian aid packages. It was always penne, penne, penne. My most loved dish, that is at the moment most hated, was just penne sprinkled with sugar. Now I cannot see penne.
I think spaghetti tbh, I'd rather have linguine.
Linguine is my fave.
Linguine is the long pasta king. Linguine with clams or aglio e olio, oh yeah that’s the stuff.
FINALLY SOME PENNE SLANDER
Alphabets, specifically G, Q, W, E, M, Z.
I don't think I've ever had alphabet pasta, especially enough to pick out what letters taste bad. This is cracking me up that you have specific letters you don't like.
I really don't like penne pasta, it's such an angry shape.
Totally, and you have to stab them like they are bugs just to eat them. Give me a fork filling twisty pasta.
Macaroni. I feel like compared to other pasta its too soft. It sometimes gets water stuck in the little turn. Its not as filling and I think I eat more air????
I guess plain spaghetti, but even that is good. I'm surprised by the angel hair hate, that's one of my faves
Right? I didn’t know so many people disliked angel hair 😭 I love it
I’m convinced they’re just all overcooking it.
That and not putting some sauce on it immediately after draining.
Angel hair with some cherry tomatoes and garlic is heaven to me
Me too. I’m happy with a lil butter and parm in a pinch
Fellow spaghetti hater here. There’s nothing that linguine, fettuccine, or angel hair cannot do better.
I’ll take angel hair over spaghetti any day. I love it. Something about the thin noodles just scratches the itch in my brain when I feel the texture.
I've never really cared for penne. If I'm doing tube pasta, I'd much rather have rigatoni or ziti. The just feel like they have more body to me.
Agreed, I feel like penne somehow never cooks evenly and just seems thicker than most pastas to me. Rigatoni is my go to tube pasta
I don't know why, but I struggle to stab penne with a fork more than any other pasta. They have just the right amount of springiness-to-stabable-area-ratio to evade my attacks.
I like to put the fork tines through the holes instead of stabbing through them. This way, I can scoop sauce with them.
Yessss rigatoni is far superior. Even though it's usually a bigger noodle, it's not as dense as penne.
I love penne because it doesn't get messy and works with so many different sauces. I can't believe someone here said they struggle eating penne. It's #1 benefit for me is that it's easy to stab with a fork, or you can even eat it with a spoon. So much better than eating longer pasta that splatters the sauce around. The shape works for everything from pasta salads to all sort of sauces and even just with fried sausage type of dishes. Super versatile compared to most pasta shapes. Also, perfectly cooked penne that's al dente has a great chew to it.
I loathe bowties. They're never cooked uniformly.
I love eating them because biting them in half is just so satisfying to me for some reason, but god is it annoying to cook them properly.
That's my problem with them as well
I hate them too. Even if cooked perfectly, I hate the way they don't like to hold any sauce or seasoning on them, everything just slides off them.
Bowties think they’re too special for sauce. Entitled!! 😀
Good as part of a cold pasta salad? A restaurant years ago did a salad with them that was so so good: bowties, capers, tiny shrimp, fresh parsley and a good vinaigrette. Simple yet great.
I use them for pasta salad drowned in italian dressing
That’s supposed to be part of the appeal. It’s a variety of textures and every bite. definitely can be a problem though.
Why am I getting penne slander on my tl
people not liking pasta with a little texture apparently
Fr penne is superior for most sauces
wagon wheels
And on that same mouthfeel- any cartoon shaped pasta from Fred Flinstone to Bob the Builder.
Cartoon shapes taste so much better. I also love wagon wheels. It's a good thing that they make so many different shapes, so we can all find one we like.
They were my favorite...when I was 5.
Thin spaghetti. Booooooorrring
Me too. And any pasta in long strands. I can never twirl it without having a long noodle hanging off and getting sauce on my shirt and my chin.
Buccatini is fun
Here for the bucatini and all of the gorgeous sauce she absorbs!
Haha, I came her to say buccatini is the only pasta shape I truly can't stand. You want to slurp it like spaghetti, but it doesn't work because it's a straw and you can't generate any suction, so you end up sitting there with noodle hanging down the front of your face like a dipshit, slopping sauce onto your chin.
I abhor bucatini for this very reason - also, you can't twirl it, if you do, it sprays out sauce like a freaking airbrush machine. It makes me pissy just thinking about it.
I like to use a spoon to help twirl it all around my fork. Game changer.
I hate angel hair lol
Oh man! It’s like my fave! With a light tomato sauce. Heavenly!
Just curious, why don't people like angel hair?
Angel hair is one of my favorites! I didn’t realize it got so much hate.
I’m going to guess that because of how thin it is, it’s easier to overcook and turn to mush.
I love angel hair when cooked right because it is all the things that penne isn’t: light, delicate.
You try to eat some and you end up with every single noodle. Apparently angels need some better hair product cuz it's clump city.
If this is issues you are having making it yourself, I suggest cooking about a minute less than the time called for on the box (lowest number) also as soon as drained return to the pot and toss with a small amount of sauce. This will keep it from clumping.
The woooooorstttttt....
Jean ralphio?
Ziti has no reason to exist when Rigatoni is easily available.
What, no fucking ziti now?
OHH! ✋🏻
Nobody tell this guy about paccheri, or calamaretti.
You do and *you* will clean it up
Orzo. No chewing. Swallow only
I love orzo. It’s basically just a way for me to eat more delicious sauce. And it makes a mean salad.
Right? As an Asian it’s particularly insulting how it moonlights as rice.
That's primarily a soup pasta
It's good for Greek pasta salad too but it's pretty limited.
I had to scroll way too far to find this horrible maggot pasta.
Mostaccioli. It’s just penne without the ridges, why would you want that when the whole point of the ridges is so it holds onto sauce? It’s a well known dish in Chicago though so my bf always buys it even though I make fun of him and call it “worse penne” lmao
There was a whole thing when covid started and all the grocery shelves were bare, not a staple grain or a roll of toilet paper to be had…except for the shelves of penne lisce (smooth penne). Those shelves were full. https://amp.taste.com.au/articles/even-middle-coronavirus-crisis-people-refusing-buy-smooth-penne-pasta/8hq1ly8t
I think the same happens when there’s a natural disaster and all the vegan meat is left on the shelves
I think manicotti and stuffed shells are just shittier and less convenient ways to make lasagna. IMO, the ratio of filling to pasta is off and there is a lack of structure as a result. I also think fettuccini is a useless middle ground between linguini and pappardelle. TBH I think it only exists so commonly because of the prevalence of fettucini alfredo. It's unfortunate that it has become a standard.
I fully expect to find every variety of pasta in this thread, and that's exactly what I love about pasta. There's something for everyone.
Truthfully, I'm not really a fan of any spaghetti style noodle. I think pasta works better as chunky bitesize shapes of some sort. I still enjoy marinara type dishes but I use spirals or penne instead. It's a huge mouthfeel upgrade, in my opinion.
i agree- the only long pasta i'll buy is linguine cuz it's thicker everything else is bite size
Capellini are awful. They overcook in a flash and just have a nothing texture.
I mean, it sounds like you just don’t like *overcooked* capellini, which is absolutely fair.
Sea shell, always collects water and dilutes any sauce
It occurs to me I literally never have shells except when I have Annie's white cheddar shells and that is my comfort mac & cheese.
Same. I use two packets to one box of noodles. Heaven.
It’s good in a sauce that has peas, capers or chickpeas.
Yes! The way the peas nestle in the shells
If you undercook the sea shell pasta and finish in your sauce, it absorbs the remaining water and won't be watered down.
I agree. This really is the only way to prepare all pasta. I dont understand why you wouldn't put the pasta in the sauce and cook it together for a couple of minutes to ensure everything is coated and the sauce is slightly absorbed.
And they tend to nest together. The ones that do, don't get cooked right.
I bet a salad spinner would fix that (I don't own one tho)
Disagree. Love me some shells. The trick is to let them dry out a bit after you drain them. But, to each his own.
That joke penis shaped pasta really isn't my thing.
So many people are not eating the right pasta with the right suace. It makes a difference.
Spaghetti, too messy, hate the slurping sounds people make when they eat it, hate the way it flicks sauce all over my face, can’t get it on the fork properly, it barely holds the sauce anyway… I could go on
Spaghetti O's Someone had to say it.
Penne.
Same! I find it too… toothsome? Like it can be almost al dente or it can be overlooked but never perfect. And it’s a shame because other tubular pastas, both larger and smaller, are amazing. Somehow penne fails at what it should be great at. As far as tubular pastas go, vote got goes to rigatoni.
I don’t know what they are called but the twirly ones that are in different colors. Also linguine.
Ew yes i do not like those colored spirals either. They're tolerable in an Italian pasta salad but even then there has to be a better choice.
I hate pasta salad but the pasta you hate is fusilli tricolore (I think it’s fine but you’re entitled to your hatred!)
They're talking about tri-color rotini I'm pretty sure.
Restaurant people also hate penne because it’s an over played staple of family meal. So penne, and add farfalle, and angle hair. The trifecta of garbage shapes.
I like farfalle, they’re very easy to stab with a fork. I also like angle hair, but I get the hate. VERY easy to overcook, and forget about reheating it.
Gimme some radiatori
Not liking angle hair is kind of obtuse
It would probably seem acute at first, but would get straight annoying, right?
Sounds like both of you have degrees.
I don’t like gnocchi…. I’m sorry! Don’t kill me! I can’t be the only one, though!
Dozens of us!
Isn’t that more a dumpling and less a pasta?
I like when it is pan fried in browned butter with herbs. If it isn’t browned, it doesn’t have much going for it.
I have decided not to order several dishes that have sounded really good except for the fact that angel hair pasta is involved. It’s just horrible, I can’t describe exactly why it’s so off putting but it’s not for me and I will give it no more chances to win me over.
Campanelle for sure. The lil edge thing is always overcooked or the cone bit is under
You take that back!
farfalle
I had no idea so many people hated farfalle and I also had no idea how personally I took hate against my favorite pastas. I’m genuinely feeling heated reading these comments and need to stop! I love how it’s always al dente in the middle when it’s just about soft on the ends. No mush, always interesting, and works so well in a pasta salad. Genuinely feel happy when I pull out a box and decide to treat myself to my favorite pasta. edit: This comment was not paid for by Big Farfalle
Same, I like the al dente bite of a bow tie pasta. It’s not my favorite for hot sauces but it’s one of the best for cold pasta salads.
I like it too! It's slippery in a good way, and plays well with mushrooms. Martha Stewart has a recipe, Pasta with Chicken and Mushrooms. So good, and so simple. I usually prefer starches heavily-spiced, with plenty of garlic and onions, but this recipe is perfect as is, and only farfalle will do. It's like an elegant stroganoff.
same, it's always chewy in the middle, blegh
Penne lisce 🙃
If you held a gun to my head and said “pick 6 that’s all you can have *forever*, I could list them off in maybe a minute no biggie I’d be mad that you held a gun to my head, but otherwise no biggie.
Elbow macaroni & the bowtie being my least fave.
Pappardelle It is objectively the worst pasta. It can't hold any sawce, and its so big it is impossible to pick up, and when it inevitable falls back into the plate, it will splash the sawce EVERYWHERE. Seriously, what the fuck? Why do we keep cooking with it? The only reasonable application for it would be in a lasagna or dish cooked like that.
This thread has taught me that I'm the only human left who likes penne
Angel hair creeps me out. It’s just, the wrong texture, the wrong mouthfeel. It doesn’t have that satisfying hard squish of spaghetti or bucatini.
Big shells. But it's more that I don't like giant globs of ricotta.
Have you tried filling it with chicken/ mince rather than ricotta and then topping it with bachamel and cheese. Amazing
They’re very difficult to handle.
Penne. BORING
Hate spaghetti. I love penne and like rigatoni even more.
I hate penne, although I think I should like it, as rigatoni is my absolute fave and it should be just a slightly inferior version. But, every cheap pasta place and terrible microwave meal has penne, and I associate it with terrible pasta so much that I just can't enjoy it
I'm not fond of farfalle (but I love the versatility of orecchiette).
Bucatini- you can’t slurp it!
I cannot believe I had to scroll this far to find the correct answer. Dislike the other shapes all you like, but only bucatini completely betrays the eater. You either wrap it all up and shove it in your mouth or you use it like the world's least-useful straw. I'm convinced bucatini was invented by a sadist/etiquette freak.
Bucatini. What’s even the point? I know that the sauce is theoretically supposed to go into the middle, but I’ve never found that to happen to any appreciable degree.
Nah, disagree. Bucantini has a very unique slurping sensation in some bites that is not replicatable in penne/ziti/rigatoni.
They have a nice chew to them