Ellyn
Guru
Okay, maybe not endless. There are many varieties of pasta, however, and what I've been thinking about lately is how well a type of pasta matches to a sauce.
When I was a child, one of my favorite pasta was angel hair, because I was very small and thought of it as "just my size". When I grew up a little, I was happy to find that angel hair pasta could still be eaten by older people, because I thought that it went great with everything.
Now that I think about it, though, it can just turn into a clump if the sauce is too thick and heavy. Everyone has their own preference, though, but nowadays I only have angel hair with oil-based sauces, pesto or very light tomato sauces. Thicker cream and tomato and such, especially with meatball chunks, I leave to the ever-reliable spaghetti.
In a similar vein, there's something about macaroni and cheese that sounds kind of gross to me if we replace macaroni to make spaghetti and cheese. Maybe it's the fork-twirling part, like spinning a block in your arteries. Macaroni or ravioli, though, in a cheese sauce just comes off to me as more appropriate (even though I might still actually be eating enough to make an artery-blocker eventually. I do love cheese, and pasta.)
So, how about you? Does the type of pasta matter when pairing it with a sauce? How does texture influence, suggest, or meld with flavor in a meal in your opinion?
When I was a child, one of my favorite pasta was angel hair, because I was very small and thought of it as "just my size". When I grew up a little, I was happy to find that angel hair pasta could still be eaten by older people, because I thought that it went great with everything.
Now that I think about it, though, it can just turn into a clump if the sauce is too thick and heavy. Everyone has their own preference, though, but nowadays I only have angel hair with oil-based sauces, pesto or very light tomato sauces. Thicker cream and tomato and such, especially with meatball chunks, I leave to the ever-reliable spaghetti.
In a similar vein, there's something about macaroni and cheese that sounds kind of gross to me if we replace macaroni to make spaghetti and cheese. Maybe it's the fork-twirling part, like spinning a block in your arteries. Macaroni or ravioli, though, in a cheese sauce just comes off to me as more appropriate (even though I might still actually be eating enough to make an artery-blocker eventually. I do love cheese, and pasta.)
So, how about you? Does the type of pasta matter when pairing it with a sauce? How does texture influence, suggest, or meld with flavor in a meal in your opinion?
