Pasta: the long and short of it

Fresh or dried? Bronze cut? Long, tubular, or flat and folded? With eggs or without? There are many questions to answer when choosing the kind of pasta to use in a particular dish. With hundreds of pasta shapes available, it can be difficult to know which type will pair well with your sauce. Epicurious brings us the information we need to know to make the right decision on pasta shapes.

The main difference between fresh and dried pasta is the inclusion of egg in the dough. With a few exceptions, most dried pasta is made with only flour (or flour substitutes) and water, while most fresh pasta contains egg yolks. When it comes to texture, dried pasta has a chewiness (the “al dente” texture) whereas fresh pasta has more variety in texture depending on what ingredients are used. When making pasta at home, it is easy to add flavors and colors to fresh pasta by incorporating herbs or vegetables (or vegetable powders) to the dough. One of my favorite tricks is to roll edible flower petals and soft herb leaves into the dough and cut it into shapes large enough to see the pretty flowers silhouetted in the pasta.

Whether you want short or long pasta shapes depends largely on the consistency of your sauce. Smoother, more emulsified sauces are suited for long shapes such as spaghetti, while chunkier sauces work better with short shapes such as fusilli or penne, or shell-like shapes such as orecchiette. Some pastas tout “bronze-cut” on the label, and those are worth seeking out according to the Epicurious article. The terms refers to the material in the dies that are used to extrude the pasta. Bronze dies result in a coarser, more heavily textured pasta – all the better to hold onto your sauce.

The EYB Library contains hundreds of books dedicated to the subject of pasta. Favorites among Members include Everyday Pasta by Giada De Laurentiis, Chez Panisse Pasta, Pizza & Calzone by Alice Waters, Patricia Curtan and Martin Labro, Pasta Grannies: The Secrets of Italy’s Best Home Cooks by Vicky Bennison, Mastering Pasta: The Art and Practice of Handmade Pasta, Gnocchi, and Risotto by Marc Vetri and David Joachim. More recent titles that are worthy of your attention are The Monday Pasta Club: 60 Pasta Recipes for Every Occasion by Ed Barrow, The Silver Spoon Pasta: Authentic Italian Recipes by The Silver Spoon Kitchen, and Pasta Every Day: Make It, Shape It, Sauce It, Eat It by Meryl Feinstein.

Dried pasta is shelf stable and will last for months (or longer) if properly stored. This means you can stock up on your favorites when they go on sale. I recently snagged a few bags of bronze-cut trofie pasta on clearance for a third the regular price. Since most pasta isn’t a ‘break the bank’ ingredient, you can experiment with different shapes. Over the years I have tried dozens of shapes and sizes and have landed on a few favorites: orecchiette, cavatappi, pennettine, gemelli, and fedelini (between angel hair and thin spaghetti). My go-to brand is De Cecco. What are your favorite pasta shapes and sizes?