As an American, I don’t understand how a different pasta shape changes what kind of sauce works well, pastas have pretty much the same flavor profile, so shouldn’t all sauces work fine?
It has everything to do with the consistency of the sauce and how well it sticks to the pasta. For example, spaghetti with a meat sauce isn’t a great choice because the meat won’t actually stick to the pasta and you’ll have to scoop up that meat “manually.” Better is pappardelle, which has a huge surface area that causes the meat to stick to the pasta.
Hmm, I’ve had spaghetti with meat sauce quite a bit and it’s not really an issue (i.e. spaghetti bolognese).
That said, we don’t eat pasta very often (again, American), and I don’t like Italian much anyway. But I’ve done bolognese, carbonara, alfredo, aglio e olio, pesto, marinara, etc, all with spaghetti noodles and it’s fine. I’ve also done most of those with penne, farfalle, fettuccine, and others. Pick your noodles, pick your sauce, and go to town.
I’ve never been to Italy, so I’m guessing a lot of those pairings are very much non-traditional, but they all seem to work fine.
I hear you… it’s definitely not about one tasting better than others, but maybe more about the eating experience. I do think there’s a legitimate argument about how different pasta shapes encourage different pasta to sauce ratios, but at the end of the day it’s just the two elements coming together and the taste is what it is.
We should all enjoy it the way we want to! I just wanted to explain why some people talk about certain sauces and certain pasta shapes “belonging” together.
I do like pineapple on pizza, if it’s properly dried (nobody wants soggy pizza). But I consider American pizza to be an entirely different beast than Italian pizza, they’re not the same dish at all. With American pizza, pretty much anything goes, and generally the more toppings the better. But Italian pizza should be simple and cooked in a brick oven. Even my uncultured yankee self understands that much. 😆
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Perplexica? What sort of sauce goes with that?
As an American, I don’t understand how a different pasta shape changes what kind of sauce works well, pastas have pretty much the same flavor profile, so shouldn’t all sauces work fine?
It has everything to do with the consistency of the sauce and how well it sticks to the pasta. For example, spaghetti with a meat sauce isn’t a great choice because the meat won’t actually stick to the pasta and you’ll have to scoop up that meat “manually.” Better is pappardelle, which has a huge surface area that causes the meat to stick to the pasta.
Hmm, I’ve had spaghetti with meat sauce quite a bit and it’s not really an issue (i.e. spaghetti bolognese).
That said, we don’t eat pasta very often (again, American), and I don’t like Italian much anyway. But I’ve done bolognese, carbonara, alfredo, aglio e olio, pesto, marinara, etc, all with spaghetti noodles and it’s fine. I’ve also done most of those with penne, farfalle, fettuccine, and others. Pick your noodles, pick your sauce, and go to town.
I’ve never been to Italy, so I’m guessing a lot of those pairings are very much non-traditional, but they all seem to work fine.
I hear you… it’s definitely not about one tasting better than others, but maybe more about the eating experience. I do think there’s a legitimate argument about how different pasta shapes encourage different pasta to sauce ratios, but at the end of the day it’s just the two elements coming together and the taste is what it is. We should all enjoy it the way we want to! I just wanted to explain why some people talk about certain sauces and certain pasta shapes “belonging” together.
Makes sense, thanks for the explanation.
My understanding is that it’s largely tradition, but I suppose there are some other things to consider.
I hope not many Italians visit here, because then your inbox would be full of invectives 😁
I’d just chuckle to myself thinking of their hands flying all over the place while also trying to type. 😆
I’m sure other cultures do unholy things with American cuisine as well, but honestly, we do enough of that ourselves (e.g. Trump eating well-done steak, or this monstrosity).
And don’t mention pineapple and pizza in the same sentence!
Heathen!
I do like pineapple on pizza, if it’s properly dried (nobody wants soggy pizza). But I consider American pizza to be an entirely different beast than Italian pizza, they’re not the same dish at all. With American pizza, pretty much anything goes, and generally the more toppings the better. But Italian pizza should be simple and cooked in a brick oven. Even my uncultured yankee self understands that much. 😆