Originally Posted by
JBord
Discovering that different pastas hold sauces differently changed my pasta experience a few years ago. I often still have to Google the matchups, but it makes a difference. Last night I made bucatini with an olive oil sauce (EV olive oil, pasta water, crushed red pepper, anchovy paste, shallots, garlic, parsley) and shrimp. Grated parm. I had only used bucatini in carbonara previously, but this was a good combo.
Agreed entirely - and some of the pea or lentil based pastas are particularly good with light but flavoursome sauces, since you need to overcome their stronger initial flavours. Tonight I'm having a green lentil pasta with Puttanesca sauce which I'm really looking forward to.
Having said that, I find basic spaghetti goes well with pretty well any good sauce and, combined with a good Bolognese, it can't be beat. All the comments upthread about meatballs with spaghetti I find very odd - it seems an odd combination and one I've only seen in the USA and never tried.