Pasta shaping started with simple handmade technique and now incorporates tools and processes to create hundreds of varieties. The design elements of each shape are intended to serve a purpose. The wide variety of pasta shapes allows the cook to choose the right pasta for every dish. Understanding the major categories of pasta shapes will make it easier to make your next pasta purchase.
Tubes
Tubular pastas are made with varying surfaces, sizes and thicknesses. Short tubes like macaroni and canneroni are served cold in salads. Slightly longer tubes like penne and mostaccioli are served in basic cheese and tomato sauces. Large tubes with thicker walls are boiled and then stuffed with meats and cheeses before being baked. Some tubes have ridged surfaces to help sauces cling to the sides of the pasta.
Rods
Pasta rods are long skinny rounded pieces of pasta. Popular pasta choices like spaghetti, vermicelli and capellini are all rod-shaped. These thin pastas are served in a tomato sauce puree. Rods should always be served immediately after they have been boiled in salt water and drained. Thinner rods like angel hair take the shortest amount of time to cook and can be overcooked easily. Rod pasta that is left to cool after cooking will clump together and get sticky.
Ribbons
Ribbon pastas' large surface areas give creamy sauces plenty of space to stick. Fettuccine, linguine and agliatelle are all long ribbons of varying width. These are easily coated by buttery cream and cheese sauces as well as thin clam sauces. Extra wide ribbons like lasagna provide solid structure for layered pasta dishes that hold up in the oven. Many of these wide ribbons are given ruffled edges to provide extra strength and prevent breakage in transit.
Stuffed
Stuffed pastas are filled with vegetables, meats and cheeses before being sealed for cooking. Traditionally these are served in very light brown butter sauces to highlight the stuffings' ingredients. This Italian version of the dumpling is used as a way to reintroduce leftovers into a new meal. Ravioli, tortelloni, tortellini and tortelli are all made by placing a small amount of filling on fresh dough and then sealing and forming the pasta to surround it.
Basic Shapes
Thicker sauces with larger chunks of meat and vegetables need a hearty pasta that will hold up to the other ingredients. Chefs have created many different pasta shapes to pair well with these more rustic sauces. Many of these bite size pasta shapes are intended to hold a small amount of sauce even when speared by a fork. This keeps the sauce-to-pasta ratio balanced even on chunkier dishes. Bow ties, corkscrews and shells are often used for this purpose.
Soup Pasta
Tiny pasta shapes are cooked in broth to add texture to soups. Thin soups that are sipped quickly usually have these smallest pasta pieces. Some varieties are shaped to look like grains of rice, melon seeds, stars, letters and miniature versions of larger varietals. These small pieces are served to children because of their whimsical shapes and reduced choking hazard.
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