When it comes to dinner, pasta is one of the easiest and quickest things to make, just ask any college student. Chances are, even if you have nothing else in your cabinets or fridge, you have some sort of pasta and some sort of sauce to top it with. But have you ever stopped to think about how to pair the two? Say you make angel hair pasta and put a nice hearty meat sauce on top. It looks and smells delicious, but as soon as you take a bite, all of those meaty morsels slip off of the noodle; the pairing just doesn’t work.

There are so many types of pasta, it’s mind boggling. Above you can a see a handy chart of all of the fresh pastas we make at Carlino’s daily. Let us walk you through the best pasta/sauce pairings to make your Italian meal complete:

Thin and Long: spaghetti, vermicelli, angel hair

These pastas go well with thin, oil-based sauces that won’t weigh down the pasta, like a tomato sauce or our aglio e olio sauce.

Flat and Long: linguini, fettucini, pappardelle

The thicker the pasta is, the heavier the sauce it can handle. Thinner flat pastas like linguini and fettucini go great with light, creamy sauces like alfredo or our ever-popular La Rosa sauce. Thicker flat pastas like pappardelle are strong enough to handle a hearty Bolognese.

Shaped: raditor, spirelli, fiore, wagon wheel, farfalle, orecchiette

Shaped pastas go well with any sauce, but they are best with textured ones. Sauces with meat, vegetables, or beans go well with shaped pastas because the pieces get captured within the nooks of the pasta.

Short/Tubular: rigatoni, penne, ziti tagliati, cavatappi, tortiglioni

These types of pasta are extremely versatile. They can be used in soups, salads and casseroles or just by themselves in a sauce. Their hollow centers hold any sauce well. However, the thicker the sauce, the larger the noodle you should have.  Rigatoni, for instance, can hold a thicker sauce than penne, due to its size and the amount of pasta you are biting into.

Remember these tips for the next time you are pairing your favorite pastas and sauces, it could make all the difference in your meal!