Hong's Recipe
Even just the pasta shapes easily found at the supermarket or online add up to quite a variety. Instead of reaching for spaghetti out of habit, swapping the noodle to match your main ingredient and sauce can give the same dish a completely different feel. Heavier sauces cling better to noodles with a wide surface or ridges, while light summer pastas call for thin, delicate noodles.
1. Spaghetti
The most common long pasta, about 0.2cm in diameter. A versatile noodle that works with tomato, cream, or oil-based sauces alike.
2. Linguine
A long pasta about 0.4cm wide, essentially a flattened spaghetti. It holds sauce well, making it a great match for pesto or seafood sauces.
3. Spaghettini
Shaped just like spaghetti but thinner, at around 0.15cm.
4. Fettuccine
A wide, flat long pasta about 0.6cm across. Its broad surface holds cream or meat sauces particularly well.
5. Farfalle
A ribbon-shaped short pasta whose name means “butterfly” in Italian. Frequently used in pasta salads.
6. Fusilli
A spiral-twisted short pasta. Sauce wraps evenly around its ridges, making it a good all-purpose choice for many sauces.
7. Casarecce
A short pasta about 5cm long with both ends curled slightly inward. Its chewy texture makes it a natural fit for brothy dishes, pesto, or pasta salads alike.
8. Gemelli
Two short strands twisted together into a spiral. Known for a chewy bite that pairs especially well with pesto.
9. Angel Hair
An extremely thin long pasta, sometimes sold bundled into little nests. Its light texture makes it a good fit for summer pasta.
10. Capellini
Similar to angel hair but slightly thicker and less prone to getting mushy. Recommended for oil-based or cold pasta.
11. Pappardelle
An extra-wide, flat long pasta reaching about 3cm across. Pairs well with thick tomato sauces or cream-based sauces.
12. Conchiglie
A shell-shaped short pasta whose hollow interior traps sauce well, making it a good match for pesto or thicker sauces.
13. Bucatini
Thicker than spaghetti, with a straw-like hole running through the center that lets sauce soak into the noodle itself. Especially well suited to rich meat sauces.
14. Tagliatelle
A long, flat noodle about 0.7cm wide, similar to Korean kal-guksu. Pairs well with bold, rich sauces like ragù.
15. Tripoline
A flat long pasta with a lace-like ripple along one edge. That texture helps it soak up more sauce.
16. Gnocchi
An Italian dumpling made from a dough of boiled potato, cheese, flour, and egg. Soft rather than chewy, it goes well with anything from oil-based to tomato or cream sauces.
Wrap-up
Just looking at a noodle’s thickness and surface texture gives you a rough sense of which sauce it’s built for. Noodles with holes or a wide surface hold thick sauces well, while thin, light noodles are better suited to oil or delicate sauces. Start with what’s in your fridge and what sauce you’re making, then pick the noodle to match.
