Dry Pastas and Their Uses

Here is a listing of the most common pasta types and the sauces best served with them.

In Italian "capellini" means "little hairs." Angel hair pasta, or Capelli d'angelo, is even thinner than thin spaghetti and often sold in a nest-like shape.

Cooking time: 3 to 5 minutes
Best for: Tossing with sauce
Ideal sauces: Light tomato, olive oil, cream, butter, seafood

Short and C-shaped, elbow pasta is arguably the most common macaroni shape.  Sold as small and large elbow macaroni.

Cooking time: 6 to 8 minutes
Best for: Baked dishes, salads, soups
Ideal sauces: Cheese, butter

In Italian, farfalle (pronounced far-FAH-lee), which means "butterflies," are pinched in the middle to look like bow ties. A larger variation is known as farfalloni, while the miniature version is called farfalline.

Cooking time: 10 to 12 minutes
Best for: Tossing with sauce, salads
Ideal sauces: Cheese, olive oil, butter

These spaghetti-length noodles, sometimes made with eggs, are flat and about ¼-inch wide. Fettuccine, a term that translates to "little ribbons," is often compared to tagliatelle.

Cooking time: 10 to 12 minutes
Best for: Tossing with sauce
Ideal sauces: Meat, cream, cheese

Both twisty, 1½-inch long noodles, fusilli and rotini are essentially interchangeable as far as recipes go, but there are subtle differences between the two:

Fusilli, which translates to "little spindles," is made by twisting strands of pasta into a spring-like shape.

Rotini, which means "twists" or "spirals," is extruded into tighter twists.

Cooking time: 8 to 10 minutes
Best for: Baked dishes, salads
Ideal sauces: Tomato, pesto, seafood

These large shell-shaped noodles have a ridged exterior and a big, open cavity that is excellent for stuffing. They're sometimes referred to by their Italian name, conchiglioni.

Cooking time: 11 to 13 minutes
Best for: Stuffing, baked dishes
Ideal sauces: Tomato, cream

This pasta takes the shape of rice or barley, from which it gets its name. It's classified as pastina or "little pasta," a category of very small pasta.

Cooking time: 9 to 11 minutes
Best for: Salads, soups
Ideal sauces: Light tomato, olive oil, vinaigrette

Penne are small 2- to 4-inch-long tubes, about the size of a pinkie finger. Cut on the diagonal, some have ridges (and some don't). Penne is Italian for "pen," a reference to the angled ends of the tube that resemble the tip of a quill pen.

Cooking time: 10 to 12 minutes
Best for: Tossing with sauce
Ideal sauces: Chunky tomato, meat, vegetable, cream

Most of us refer to conchiglie as its English translation, which is "shells" or "seashells." This pasta's shape creates a cavity that's conducive to clinging sauce.

Cooking time: 10 to 12 minutes
Best for: Baked dishes, salads
Ideal sauces: Tomato, meat, vegetable, cream, cheese, vinaigrette

These spaghetti-like noodles are flat, like fettuccini, but half as wide: about ⅛-inch. Its Italian name means "little tongues."

Cooking time: 10 to 12 minutes
Best for: Tossing with sauce
Ideal sauces: Tomato, pesto, olive oil, seafood

Orecchiette (pronounced oh-reck-ee-ET-tay) are small concave disk shapes that look like little ears, which is exactly what this pasta's name translates to.

Cooking time: 10 to 12 minutes
Best for: Tossing with sauce
Ideal sauces: Meat, cream, seafood

Pappardelle (pronounced pap-par-DAY-lay) are long, flat egg noodles about ⅝-inch wide. Their name translates to "gulp down." 

Cooking time: 7 to 10 minutes
Best for: Tossing with sauce
Ideal sauces: Tomato, meat, vegetable

These tubular, ridged noodles are about 1½-inches long with a ¾-inch diameter. Their name translates to "large grooves" or "large stripes."

Cooking time: 11 to 13 minutes
Best for: Tossing with sauce, baked dishes
Ideal sauces: Chunky meat or vegetable, cream, cheese

Spaghetti was our introduction to pasta. These entry-level noodles are thin, round strands about 10 inches long. 

Cooking time: 9 to 11 minutes
Best for: Tossing with sauce
Ideal sauces: Tomato, pesto, meat, seafood

Ziti noodles are medium-width tubes (just a bit wider than a drinking straw), at least 2 inches long, and almost always have smooth sides. When compared with penne, ziti have squared-off ends (as opposed to penne's angled cuts) and are generally larger. 

Cooking time: 10 to 12 minutes
Best for: Baked dishes
Ideal sauces: Light tomato, olive oil, cream, cheese