Not Every Shape Can Be a Comrade to Sauce

October 26, 2017 1:09 PM

If you missed celebrating World Pasta Day this year, you can still get into the spirit with this Twitter thread ranking 23 less-common pasta shapes.
posted by Copronymus (91 comments total)

High art, A+, would navigate Twitter's shit UI again for comedy of this caibre
posted by GuyZero at 1:19 PM on October 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Garganelli are really under appreciated.
posted by lackutrol at 1:25 PM on October 26, 2017

There are still a lot of others that should be included, such as etymologist-favorite strozzapreti, dell'Alce, aspirapolvere, elicotteri, quartetto d'archi, and so on. By all means ask for these by name at your favorite authentic Italian restaurant.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:26 PM on October 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

I love pasta. Is there a canon list?
posted by polymodus at 1:26 PM on October 26, 2017

Fantastic!! Makes me want to systematically try All Pastas. Also makes me appreciate the relative ease of the pasta-making challenge on MasterChef this season. Egg yolk ravioli, sure, but no creste di gialli or radiatori.
posted by epj at 1:29 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

This neanderthal can't even make capellini properly so who cares what they have to say in yet another dumb, hyperbolic list.
posted by munchingzombie at 1:31 PM on October 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

Garganelli are only OK, they can't properly hold onto the Smurf sauce though.
posted by idiopath at 1:32 PM on October 26, 2017 [10 favorites]

I skipped lunch so now I'm here suffering. Suffering sans pesto.
posted by rewil at 1:33 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm hungry
posted by supermedusa at 1:36 PM on October 26, 2017

They're all good pastas Bertucci.
posted by idiopath at 1:37 PM on October 26, 2017 [22 favorites]

He is right about #1. A Mafaldine with say Bolognese is just amazing and rich.

Trofie is perfect with a creamy sauce or pesto. Nothing like that texture.
posted by vacapinta at 1:39 PM on October 26, 2017

I love pasta. Is there a canon list?

I don't know about canon, but there's the plethora of pasta permutations, or a handy flowchart in case someone hands you a plate of pasta and just walks away.
posted by sysinfo at 1:40 PM on October 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

Capellini is great and is almost all I buy. Not sure why the author can't seem to make it properly.
posted by Slinga at 1:41 PM on October 26, 2017

Is there a technical Italian name for the Spaghetti-O?
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:45 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Gemelli should be the basis of every pasta salad. Radiatori are an acceptable second choice.
posted by Flannery Culp at 1:46 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Is there a technical Italian name for the Spaghetti-O?

Anelli
posted by vacapinta at 1:50 PM on October 26, 2017 [8 favorites]

If you squint, maybe the Spaghetti-O could pass as occhi di passero?
posted by sysinfo at 1:50 PM on October 26, 2017

Turns out I'm not the first to have that thought...
posted by sysinfo at 1:52 PM on October 26, 2017

Capellini is too delicate to bother with. Even if you manage to avoid overcooking it, it dissolves into mush as soon as you put it in your mouth. I demand sturdier pasta.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:53 PM on October 26, 2017 [7 favorites]

Su filindeu, which means “the threads of God”

https://nerdist.com/this-rare-pasta-is-only-made-by-three-women-in-the-world/
posted by jeff-o-matic at 1:57 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

If the pasta retains all the sauce, then what am I supposed to mop up with my delicious bread when I'm done?
posted by gladly at 2:01 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

True fact: "Anelli" is Italian for "little anuses". It describes not only the shape of Spaghetti-Os, but the flavor too.
posted by Nelson at 2:10 PM on October 26, 2017 [16 favorites]

Anyone who can say such slanderous things about long pasta is just wrong. Someone is WRONG on the INTERNET and I must correct them, harrumph
posted by scruffy-looking nerfherder at 2:20 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Nah, it just means "rings".
posted by Wolfdog at 2:20 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

in case someone hands you a plate of pasta and just walks away.

I tell you now, this does not happen nearly as often as it should. Thanks, Obama.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:23 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I am now eating some Pennucce with olive oil and pecorino (I'm lazy)
posted by supermedusa at 2:23 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Capellini is angel hair, I think you serve it expensively, with shaved bottarga, or something like truffles and olive oil.
posted by polymodus at 2:27 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Rotele was on the menu last night and at #18 is sadly underrated. No idea how it could be considered 'sauce-phobic' and it has a delightfully different feel in the mouth. A poor list, sir.
posted by N-stoff at 2:28 PM on October 26, 2017

Half of those designer shapes are never actually used by anyone. Also: no glorious orecchiette, no genius spaghetti alla chitarra? Ma vai a quel paese, va.
posted by progosk at 2:29 PM on October 26, 2017

So you rant on about the large farfalle...but then rank miniature lasagna as #1?
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:41 PM on October 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

I rate all 12/10. They're good pastas, bront!
posted by capricorn at 2:45 PM on October 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

i have had those godawful stamped disc noodles and they aroused within me a hateful rage so powerful that for me to even recall it briefly is a danger to all mankind
posted by poffin boffin at 2:47 PM on October 26, 2017 [11 favorites]

is a danger to all mankind

More so than usual?
posted by Carillon at 2:50 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I have to find some of that Mohawk pasta. The cresta di whatever, that looks so elegant, and would beautify almost any dish. Here I will confess to having bought a box of edamame spaghetti. I haven't tried it yet, you can bet I won't come in here to discuss it, without a bib and a flack vest.
posted by Oyéah at 2:52 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

If this is anyone other than James Wollcot you're stealing my bit!
posted by The Whelk at 3:01 PM on October 26, 2017 [6 favorites]

They are correct about the croxetti that is for sure. it is like trying to eat a plate of sauceless POGs. It is a super old style so they you can be like "well, they weren't good at everything!", which is nice. I carry almost all of these shapes in my shop, and I don't think the croxetti has ever had a return customer.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 3:02 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Rotele are not sauce-phobic; they are excellent for sauce; all the little spokes collect sauce between them.

I discovered this when Mac-n-Cheese boxes started having different pasta shapes; I loved the wheels and the spirals (favorite) and hated almost everything else - all the little "cookie cutter" shapes (snowmen, etc.) cook too unevenly to be good.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 3:03 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Croxetti is like that thing that signals the end of a push-pop.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 3:04 PM on October 26, 2017

no glorious orecchiette

Way down in the responses someone brought this up and he said, I think reasonably, that orecchiette is common enough to be part of the pasta canon. It's definitely farfalle-tier to me in terms of familiarity.
posted by Copronymus at 3:05 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

it is like trying to eat a plate of sauceless POGs.

Remember Alf(redo)? He's back... in pasta form!
posted by halation at 3:15 PM on October 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

I tell you, friends, the Sauce Trench™ changed my life... and it can change yours, too.
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:04 PM on October 26, 2017

My two generic standbys are orecchiette for creamy sauces, they gather in the sauce without being sealed off the way shells are; and farfalle for coarser sauces, for example if I'm sauteeing a quick kale and sausage sauce in a pan.

I also use angel hair spaghetti with my bolognese sauce. I freely admit it is would be more suited for something like pappardelle, and when serving it as a host I use that or some shell shape. But I adore the texture of al dente angel hair, the sauce is my mother's recipe, and I grew up eating it practically once a week with capellini. So there.

Shapes I have never liked: fusilli. Don't really know why, never liked the mouthfeel.
posted by tavella at 4:14 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Conchiglie and Rotele are my homeboys. Don't believe anything bad you hear about them.

But, yeah, seriously, fuck Croxetti.
posted by 256 at 4:15 PM on October 26, 2017

Also, if your angel hair/capellini is dissolving into mush in your mouth, you are either overcooking it or buying terrible quality pasta. Or possibly using some kind of bizarrely watery sauce. I have cooked it hundreds of times in my life and almost never could it be described as mushy.
posted by tavella at 4:18 PM on October 26, 2017

• you are just Garbage Spaghetti
• Absolute Pile Of Mush
• Literally allergic to retaining sauce

Seriously, what are people doing to their capellini? This is how you cook capellini: pick actual capellini, by which I mean the super fine stuff often labelled angel hair, not the thicker stuff that is really spaghetti. Have your (not watery) sauce ready to go. Dump your capellini into the salted boiling water. Then stand near the stove, because this isn't going to take long. After 2-3 minutes, fish out a strand and see if it has lost rigidity. Once that happens, bite a strand. Is there an actual crunch in the middle? No? Then it's done. Yes? Check a strand every 30 seconds to a minute until there isn't. And I mean a *snap*, not just resistance.

Mix immediately with the sauce, no I don't mean pour it on top, toss it thoroughly until every strand is coated. Serve.
posted by tavella at 4:38 PM on October 26, 2017 [5 favorites]

we should also be very suspicious of any pasta style that predates the tomato arriving in Italy.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 4:53 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

One thing that orecchiette is very very good for, is you make a béchamel or something with lots of roasted garlic and maybe a squirt of lemon juice. But you make way too much of it, so there are leftovers for the next day. The next day, you have a cold, solid cube of tupperware pasta in the fridge. What you do with that is, you cut it into slices and heat on a frying pan, browning it into basically the homemade and much tastier version of "deep-fried macaroni and cheese"

it is nothing short of wonderful
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:21 PM on October 26, 2017 [9 favorites]

DoctorFedora, my heart truly thanks you, even if my cardiovascular system does not.
posted by prismatic7 at 5:43 PM on October 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

Honestly, you can make a béchamel with just a simple roux of a bit of butter and some flour (you melt the butter and then add some flour, and you stir with a fork or whisk until it's smooth, and then you add whatever kind of regular milk you like — it's basically the same thing you do when making macaroni and cheese, except you did not realize it at the time). Surprisingly, it's not actually that heavy a sauce, outside of the fact that it has like three giant cloves of garlic that you roasted by putting them in the toaster oven at the 300 W setting for half an hour.
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:45 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I will note that many of the reviews unfairly deduct points for sauce-aversion in a manner that suggests the author is not familiar with the fact that you must mix some pasta water in with the sauce as an emulsifier

this is of course entirely ignoring the fact that the best way to cook pasta (but also the most likely to give someone a Concern Hernia, or Concernia) is to pour your dry pasta into an empty pot, add enough water to cover, add a good bit of salt, and bring to a boil (stirring occasionally to prevent sticking) and then drop the heat to a simmer once it reaches a boil. This will give you a powerfully concentrated, glue-like pasta water that you could mix with anything (especially light oil-based sauces) and have it stick to the pasta like it's being paid extra to do so. Try it once and realize that you will never again try another approach to cooking pasta.

(You can also skip the strainer by just sort of scooping the pasta out of the pot and putting it into your skillet of sauce, which makes an easy way to be unable to even try to avoid adding pasta water, which will make your finished result better)
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:00 PM on October 26, 2017 [4 favorites]

The author is a stickler for sauce retention but doesn't even mention trottole?

Nothing makes sense anymore
posted by lorddimwit at 6:07 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Last weekend I actually talked a friend out of cooking capellini. He thanked me.
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:24 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

Is there a technical Italian name for the Spaghetti-O?

Anelli

Interesting. Shares the same root at annular(ring shaped) and anus.

Where do the Yoda and R2D2 shapes from Kraft™ Star Wars Mac and Cheese rank? And don’t get me started on the Minions™ shape. My children accept no substitute.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 6:50 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Recently discovered 'pasta al ceppo' (slamazon) from rusticella d'abruzzo. Dunno if this is an old or modern/invented shape but it's the bomb for heavy no-tomato meat-based ragu. Bonus point for cooking evenly and relatively quickly.

Also: if you are ever in SF and want a dynamite bowl of pasta, head to Tosca and order the Bucatini with Tomato, Guanciale, and Chili. It will totally change your idea of what 'al dente' should be. Not sure if mere mortals can achieve this at home. I certainly cannot.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:54 PM on October 26, 2017

is it okay that I interpreted "slamazon" as being the name of a mail order shop specializing in professional wrestling-related items
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:58 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

is it okay that I interpreted "slamazon" as being the name of a mail order shop specializing in professional wrestling-related items

(Off to register a new domain name. Jest need me some content...and pasta!)
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 7:02 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

I didn't need to go out for pasta tonight, then this post happened, then I needed to go out for pasta tonight.
posted by idiopath at 7:30 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Who GOES OUT for pasta? Just get yourself some passata, a bit of butter, and maybe some garlic and basil or shiso. Or maybe if you have hours and hours available you can make that amazing tomato sauce with the whole canned tomatoes and onion and butter. Or if you want, you can do a thing with olive oil and little bits of flavorful stuff like garlic or rosemary or sun-dried tomatoes or nori or some combination of those. Or you can make an easy béchamel roux thing with roasted garlic or cherry tomatoes or cheese I guess.

I uh

I cook a fair bit with pasta
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:33 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

"They are correct about the croxetti that is for sure. "

This is the only one they're correct on. Literally every other example is like, "I am terrible at pasta! Let me blame others for my failure!"

The grooves on the outside of many of the tube pasta are there to help with sauce, but they're better suited to chunky sauces.

I don't know why this vexes me so much aside from a welling up from the gut of all of the terrible pasta I've eaten in my life, but gaaaaaaaaaugh!
posted by klangklangston at 7:54 PM on October 26, 2017

Casarecce (aka 'Sicilian Twiddlers') is the go-to pasta shape in the 7 household. It has a satisfying, wholesome chewiness and unparalleled sauce retention. Goes very well with garlic, oil, and some good hard cheese (we had some Pecorino Sardo which was bitey/sweet, socky-tasting magic).
posted by prismatic7 at 9:27 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

HAS ANYONE HERE SUCCESSFULLY EATEN BUCATINI
posted by latkes at 9:53 PM on October 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Capellini is great for peak of summer farmers market heirloom tomatoes chopped rough, cooked for like five minutes with salt, garlic and fresh basil. Sauce and pasta are both done at once. Toss, grind some pepper and devour.
posted by latkes at 10:04 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

I went to a deli, attached to the Rio Bravo Ranch, outside of Bakersfield, just at the entrance of Kern Canyon. They make olive oil there, they have an oil they press for the next couple of months, it has only a 6 month shelf life, it is light green and mostly opaque. I tasted this and it was the best olive oil ever, it was in a class all its own, I could taste the essence of the olives suspended in it, and it was the freshest and most delightful taste. This is the ranch. Whoa that olive oil was remarkable. The web page opens to an overview of the place, and Kern Canyon is in the upper right of the picture.
posted by Oyéah at 10:18 PM on October 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

When I was about eleven my mother injured her hands and I was in charge of the cooking while she healed. I was super excited about this! I went shopping with my dad, who does not know much about cooking, and picked out bucatini (super thick spaghetti with a hole down the middle) because it looked cooler than regular spaghetti. I swear I followed the cooking directions to the letter, but I ended up with pasta that had the consistency of Twizzlers. No winding that stuff around your fork. Everyone just sighed and prayed my mother would get better soon.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:58 PM on October 26, 2017 [2 favorites]

We only stock five shapes in the flat: Penne, Fusilli, Spaghetti, Linguine, Lasagne - which are all canon of course. After reading this list, I would def be interested in Creste Di Gialli to optimise the storage space of Penne and Fusilli, although it resembles Macaroni and my husband as a really weird aversion to the Macaroni shape.

Radiatori looks like brains.
posted by like_neon at 2:57 AM on October 27, 2017

...and my husband as a really weird aversion to the Macaroni shape.

I do too. Mainly because it has the taste of poverty.
posted by vacapinta at 5:01 AM on October 27, 2017

I LOVE Kraft mac & cheese. Put some cut up hot dogs in it with a side of kimchee and you've got a happy customer. This serving suggestion has not been successful in woo-ing husband to Team Macaroni.
posted by like_neon at 5:39 AM on October 27, 2017

Seriously, what are people doing to their capellini?

I expect they were cooking it like people normally cook pasta? You know, you put the water on and go deal with something else and then come back and the water's been boiling for a few minutes already so you chuck the pasta in and check the sauce-from-a-jar and oh shit the kids/puppies/cats are destroying something I've got to go deal with that what the hell is that noise from the washing machine hey honey how are you really that sounds like a bad day have a hug oh fuck I'd better check on the pasta
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 6:06 AM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Can confirm bucatini is a cruel prank
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:23 AM on October 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

I've been a fan of campanelle for a while (although it forces me to buy Barilla because they're the only ones in my sphere who freaking make it, and I generally tend to avoid them because of their homophobic CEO). It rocks in this recipe.
posted by dlugoczaj at 6:24 AM on October 27, 2017

I once actually found and tried what was not technically bucatini but instead just really long uncut ziti or something. Oh, hey, really long uncut ziti or something seems kind of neat and novel! I thought. I bet this will cook like normal pasta and not instead belch squirts of boiling water in every direction from the pot using bubble pump action akin to a coffee maker! I thought.

You will never guess what happens next
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:27 AM on October 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Cavatappi are canon, then? Because cavatappi ftw.
posted by papayaninja at 7:01 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Very happy to see radiatori high on the list, one of my favorites. It's a little radiator!
posted by slogger at 7:27 AM on October 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

HAS ANYONE HERE SUCCESSFULLY EATEN BUCATINI

posted by latkes at 9:53 PM on October 26 [2 favorites +] [!]

sure, but in the least successful cases I had to replace my shirt and in the most successful ones I remembered its best consumed in ones underwear.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 7:30 AM on October 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

omg! I didn't know other people cared about this? this makes me very happy. Radiatore are the favorite in my house, we lovingly call them noodle nuggets, due to their compact and dense structure. (also noodle nuggets are just so fun to say)
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:37 AM on October 27, 2017

Doctor Fedora: going out was non-optional, I had a fixed engagement and was not to be home to cook. Getting pasta out is ill advised, as I could make it easily at home. Sadly I read something on the internet that inspired me to eat pasta and my cravings could not be swayed.
posted by idiopath at 10:09 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

so, to answer the question, who goes out for pasta? - someone who is busy, nowhere near a kitchen, and easily swayed by his cravings
posted by idiopath at 10:12 AM on October 27, 2017 [4 favorites]

HAS ANYONE HERE SUCCESSFULLY EATEN BUCATINI

Yes, but it was at a restaurant, and frankly this bucatini sub-thread is making me reconsider my opinion that it was horribly overpriced for what I got.

(For the record, it was in quite a thin sauce, thin enough that it was just coating the pasta rather than filling it, with tiny chunks of sausage. It was very yummy but $16 for about two cups of food that is mostly pasta is frankly ridiculous. Even if it is apparently the only way to neatly eat bucatini.)
posted by kalimac at 10:49 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

HAS ANYONE HERE SUCCESSFULLY EATEN BUCATINI

I have; I was motivated after I found some random post on Tumblr, declaring it the 'ugliest pasta ever' or something. Well, challenge accepted. I bought some, made it at home, and didn't get the water spraying effect. I tossed it in some generic spaghetti sauce I got at the store, and then proceeded to eat it veeeery carefully. Ended up not making a huge mess of myself.
posted by spinifex23 at 10:53 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

GCU Sweet and Full of Grace: Well, yes, if you have such a hectic life that you can't spare the 3 or 4 minutes capellini takes to cook then it is not the pasta for you, but most people do. And that's what makes capellini great: I have frozen mealsized portions of my bolognese, so I put the water on to boil, put the sauce in the microwave to defrost, start putting together a salad. The water boils, I put in the capellini, give the sauce a stir, start pulling down plates and silverware. Check the capellini, if it's ready toss it with the sauce, if it isn't maybe wash a dish or two until it's ready.

You can have a nice balanced, tasty meal on the table within 15-20 minutes of starting to boil water.
posted by tavella at 12:03 PM on October 27, 2017

HAS ANYONE HERE SUCCESSFULLY EATEN BUCATINI

I have, and it was beautiful.

And I was about to suggest, nay, demand that every bucatini skeptic in this thread make immediate arrangements to get themselves to Louisville, Colorado, for a meal at The Blue Parrot, which was a joyful, boisterous, down-to-earth family restaurant that had been in operation for nearly a hundred years-- but alas and dammit, it looks like The Blue Parrot closed back in January.

The Blue Parrot's menu didn't actually say anything about bucatini, but bucatini was what you got when you ordered spaghetti and meatballs. They had no choice but to serve bucatini, because their sauce was so epic, and their meatballs were so hearty (and also, so ridiculously freaking huge) that ordinary spaghetti would have been utterly overwhelmed. It would have been like serving the stuff on a pile of boiled cobwebs.

RIP, Blue Parrot. My years in Boulder were mostly pretty dreary, but you were a source of warmth and light. And though may have widened by ass, you more than made up for it by brightening my heart.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 12:54 PM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

I believe that bucatini is narrow enough that surface tension prevents each and every unit of pasta from becoming a boiling water cannon when cooking

This is only one of the many advantages bucatini has over uncut long ziti or something
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:15 PM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

tbh i feel like the surprise burst of boiling sauce from within tubular etc pasta is a vital and valued part of the pasta experience.
posted by poffin boffin at 3:37 PM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

it is the price we must pay for deliciousness, like with pizza rolls, the napalm of the food world
posted by poffin boffin at 3:37 PM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

DoctorFedora I hate to say this but I think uncut long ziti IS bucatini
posted by latkes at 3:58 PM on October 27, 2017

I want to say that bucatini is narrower but I may very well be wrong

Yeah, the photo on Wikipedia would readily fit down the middle of the uncut ziti in question
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:17 PM on October 27, 2017

It was more like these Disaster Tubes™
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:19 PM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

It is worth noting that due to the thickness of cut ziti, even when fully cooked they are highly resistant to things such as bending which gives them great structural rigidity and integrity as s building material but also turns any meal involving them into an Anecdote
posted by DoctorFedora at 7:23 PM on October 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Not sure whether to admit this, but it is only upon reading this thread that I realise that I do know what Fusilli pasta is- it's what I've been eating regularly as spiral pasta.
posted by daybeforetheday at 8:28 PM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

Please disregard the number of typos in my last comment. I have been overwhelmed with memories flooding back of experimentation with uncut ziti during my heady college days
posted by DoctorFedora at 9:14 PM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

Vaguely apropos, the current issue of Saveur is all about pasta. It contains a huge amount of detail that might be of interest. I think some of the articles are here. Particularly How a New Pasta Shape Gets Invented. Saveur is not exactly hard-hitting journalism and tends to the smug. (This issue includes an article about how if you make pasta by hand you are inadequate because you are using a machine, and real hipsters hand roll and shape.) But it's got more depth than the usual food writing, this issue in particular.

‘I don’t eat paccheri in public,’ she said. I asked ‘Why? You love paccheri!’ She told me ‘You need to open your mouth too big with that shape. It’s not nice for a lady!’ Afterward I couldn’t get her dilemma out of my head.”

posted by Nelson at 10:37 AM on October 28, 2017 [1 favorite]