30 Types Of Pasta And The Sauces To Pair Them With

"It's a fresh pasta with a meat filling," Borri said of this stuffed pasta. "You can do them with extra virgin olive oil or butter with some cheese on top. Or with a reduced meat sauce."

Like its name suggests, angel hair is very long, thin, and delicate. Because of that, it only takes a few minutes to cook and should be lightly dressed with oils, butter, or a thin tomato sauce.

Bucatini is a very bulky noodle. So thick in fact, there's a small hole that runs through the noodle. "We serve our ragú with bucatini because it's a thicker pasta, and the grind on the meat is a little bit coarser," Adler said. The weight of bucatini can stand up to most chunkier, heavier sauces.

The word cascatelli comes from the Italian word for waterfalls. The shape is the brainchild of The Sporkful podcast host Dan Pashman. He set out to create the perfect pasta shape, combining saucability, forkability, and tooth-sinkability. The ruffles make a trough for the sauce, the long shape makes it easy to fork, and the complicated texture makes it fun to eat.

Cavatappi are less like a corkscrew and more like a tubular curl with ridges. All that built-in texture makes them great for just about any sauce—creamy, chunky, tomato-y, or oil-based.

At first glance, cavatelli kinda look like fat, little worms. The texture is pillowy, soft, and tender. They are often served with broccoli and sausage, but also play well with red sauce and herb butter sauces.

Ditalini are super short tubes, most often used as a base in salads, or to add bulk into soups.

Would it surprise you to learn that farfalle means butterfly? This fluttery pasta shape, also known as bowtie, is made from durum wheat flour, so it's very sturdy, making it great with baked dishes, creamy sauces, and salads.

This flat, ribbon noodle is most known for pairing with Alfredo sauce. The thick, creamy mixture perfectly clings to the fettuccine, making it a great partner for any smooth and/or creamy sauces.

Fusilli, otherwise known as corkscrew, has lots of layers to catch sauce. It goes seamlessly with basil pesto or other smooth sauces.

This pasta shape is made from a string of pasta twisted together to form a two-strand braid. It's just as versatile as penne, but a little less popular, meaning it's an easy way to impress dinner party guests. Think pesto, cream sauces, soups, casseroles, and more.

Gnocchi is the most pillow-like of all the pillowy pastas. The soft and tender dumpling is made from boiled potato and flour, making it filling but so delicious. It can be used in soups, like this Olive Garden chicken gnocchi soup, in cream sauces, like this cacio e pepe, or in any tomato or butter sauces.

That's not a typo. The long sheets of pasta you use to make the cheesy, saucy, meaty baked dish are called lasagne. The dish itself is called lasagna.

On most restaurant menus, you'll find linguine, a flat noodle with slightly less width than fettuccine, paired with seafood dishes. There's the traditional linguine with clams, but you'll also see it served with shrimp, calamari, scallops, and other shellfish. It also goes well with cream-based sauces.

Macaroni is the noodle of your childhood. It's a slightly curvy, short and small tube used in tons of macaroni salad and mac and cheese recipes.

Manicotti are giant tubes with big ridges meant to be stuffed with cheese, dressed with sauce, and baked in the oven.

Originating from the Italian word orecchie, meaning little ears, this cute shape is pretty hard to make by hand. Traditionally, it is paired with green vegetables like broccoli rabe, but the little dimple makes a great sauce holder, too.

Orzo is considered a pastina, or little pasta. The small grain-like shape is great in soups, salads, or meat sauces.

Think of paccheri as a bigger, smoother rigatoni. It's great with chunky meat and fish sauces. "There is a huge hole inside, and every piece of fish gets inside," Borri said. "Every time that you bite the pasta, you have some fish as well."

Pappardelle is an egg-based pasta, and it's more delicate and slightly wider than tagliatelle. The name comes from the Italian word for gobble up, pappare. Try it with meat sauces and ragús, like this bolognese.