Every pasta shape: identified, measured, and paired
The shape is half the recipe.
Every sauce is looking for something to hold onto. Rigatoni's ridges and open tube give a ragu that grip; capellini, cut for a lighter sauce, lets it slide right to the bottom of the bowl. We measure every shape, sort out its regional names, and name the sauce it holds best.
What every profile gives you
What it really is
What the shape actually is. Its name, the regional aliases it hides under, where it comes from, and the history with the legends labeled as legends. One shape can carry a dozen names. We index every one.
The real numbers
Real numbers from the makers' own spec sheets. Length, bore, wall thickness, cook time. Rigatoni is a 16 mm tube with a 1.1 mm wall, not just a big one. Where nobody has measured it, we say so.
The sauce it wants
The physics of sauce. Why a shape grips what it grips, the sauces it was built to carry, and the closest swap for when the shop is out.
From the catalog
Start with a question
The things people actually come here to settle.
The eight families
- Long strands
Round and oval section, built to twirl
- Ribbons
Flat cuts from a rolled sheet
- Tubes
Extruded cylinders, smooth or ridged
- Shaped shorts
Twists, curls, shells, and wheels
- Sheets and broad cuts
Pasta as building material
- Stuffed
Parcels, rings, and pinched packets
- Pastina
The smallest shapes, made for spoons
- Hand-formed regional
Shapes that need fingers, boards, and rods
By region
A shape is a record of one place. Browse the catalog by where the pasta comes from.
Stay in the loop
From the Almanac
Updates from Pasta Almanac, when there is something worth sharing.