Things have been fairly quiet so far in the company chat room this week—nothing much out of the ordinary, just some "extra coffee!" announcements, a brainstorm about what to do with coffee grounds, and a couple of confessions. Until today. It all started with a quick question from Merrill:
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Then things started to get passionate—and fast.
Chocolate milk out of orecchiette?
Our inner children emerge, and they love dinosaur pasta, Spongebob pasta, and pastina.
Tensions are running high. Farfalle is cause for resentment. Fettuccine is divisive. No one seems ready to give it up for jumbo shells.
Michael is so inspired he writes a pasta manifesto offline:
Pasta Gripes
Cavatappi: Trying way too hard.
Farfalle: Thinks it’s cute, but either the middle is crunchy or the wings are limp.
Angel hair: Dead horse. Deservedly so.
Jumbo shells: Useful—if you’re a hermit crab.
Penne that isn’t rigate: Hates sauce/fun.
Pasta Greats
Little shells: Peas snuggle inside them and then you have a bowl of accidental micro-dumplings.
Ravioli: Literally a dumpling.
Alphabet: Like eating a cheerful Ouija board.
Pappardelle: One of the chillest pastas.
Pici: Even chiller than pappardelle. Pici doesn’t give a f#$@.
Is Olivia in fact Merrill's toddler daughter Clara? Who will come to jumbo shells' defense?
Important question: What's your favorite pasta shape? Get all fired up in the comments.
A New Way to Dinner, co-authored by Food52's founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is an indispensable playbook for stress-free meal-planning (hint: cook foundational dishes on the weekend and mix and match ‘em through the week).
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Written by: Caroline Lange
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6 Comments
But for pure pasta-as-therapy, it's hard to beat Papparadelle (with ragu-ish sauces.)
otherwise, Penne rigate and radiatore seem to rule for other meal session (most likely because Trader Joe's has organic versions of these shapes)
For the extruded types I'm a big fan of bucatini and malfadine, each one for different sauces. I'd rather buy garganelli over extruded penne.
Manually cut fresh flat egg noodles like tagliatelle or pappardelle are awesome.
See what other Food52 readers are saying.