Although I am typing this away from home (while waiting during one of my children’s sports activities), my mind is on dinner tonight. We have an abundance of tomatoes that must be addressed.
While I enjoy fresh organic tomatoes just sliced with a bit of salt or for fancy, fancy, a bit of mozzarella cheese and oregano then broiled, the fact is that there are too many tomatoes for even me to eat.
I could make a tomato pie, but my husband prefers some freshly made sauce for tonight’s dinner. Since he made dinner yesterday, I feel that I should accommodate this.
Just as not all sauce is created equal, so not all pasta is as well. There is a reason for the different shapes of pasta, besides novelty, because different types of pasta may hold or react to sauce in different ways. Just dumping everything on spaghetti or penne may not be doing justice to your dish.
Here is a basic guide or understanding about how to choose the right pasta.
Pasta that consists of smooth strands, such as spaghetti or linguini works best with smooth sauces, such as alfredo. So that chunky marinara sauce that you usually use may not be the perfect choice. Save the chunky sauce for that penne, rigatoni and other tubular pastas. They will hold on to that type of sauce well.
For the middle of the road sauce, the type that is not super smooth but not chunky, either, choose bowtie or fusilli, pasta with short shapes.
Of course, you and your family may have your own favorites. My kids love bowtie pasta with practically any type of sauce, and additions to your dishes may also affect the type of pasta that works the best. We enjoy adding ricotta cheese to our pasta and find that it does work well with the bowties.
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