Fresh and Dry Pasta: which sauce is the best for each type?

We enter here a spiny matter, with a lot of involvements with personal memories and acquired taste.


I would never dress Penne Pasta (short pasta) with clams: clams go with Spaghetti. No question.

Fresh and Dry Pasta have different textures: fresh pasta is soft, dry pasta must be "al dente", that is "to the tooth", more byte-able, harder or more gummy.

This difference, already, makes a difference in the choice of the sauce, which texture should go along with texture of the pasta.
Another difference is the shape of the pasta: some shapes are meant to "hold" the sauce. Although they "hold" it in different ways. Some Pasta shapes are striped, some are smooth, some are straight, some are twisted, some are flat, some are concave.....


In the "Spaghetti alla Carbonara", the hot pasta must be quickly tossed into slightly beaten egg yolks, so that the egg yolks go to coat the entire lenght of the spaghetti.


What to say about "Spaghetti Aglio & Olio"? would you do another shape of pasta with this simple condiment??


The "Anellini Siciliani" are a shape from Sicily: mostly used to make "savory cakes", they are good with spicy condiments, like this one with sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, orange zest, turmeric....


The "Fregula" is a dry pasta from Sardinia and must be treated like a risotto. More traditional are the condiments that include sea food and vegetables.


The "Trabaccolara" is a condiment from Viareggio, in Tuscany. The pasta is not previously boiled, but cooked directly into a fish sauce ( that must be liquid). The spaghetti must be, of course, thin.



Talking about fresh pasta, much of the decision "which sauce is good with which shape" is due to the thickness and wideness of it.



The delicate and thin "Tagliolini" go with a delicate sauce: in the photo: sea bass, zucchini and pine nuts.


The classic Tagliatelle go well with the classic Bolognese..


....... and also tasty mushrooms.


The wide "Pappardelle" can stang strong sauces made with wild boar, hare, venisson, duck...




A special note it's deserved to the Pici, the typical pasta - long irregular spaghetti -  from the country side of Siena. Traditionally made with tender wheat flour ( and not with semolina), their texture is "pasty". The most natural contiment  is with salty anchovies and garlic ( to improve the taste) and crispy fried bread crumbs ( to improve the complex texture).


so many variables.... 

In a close future I will talk about Farfalle, Penne, Rigatoni, Paccheri, Fusilli, Ruote, Orecchiette, Sfrappole, Bucatini, Linguine, Busiate, Bigoli, Reginette, Trofie, Conchiglie, Capellini.............................

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