There are hundreds of pasta shapes out there, but they’re essentially all the same in terms of ingredients. Which shape you should choose depends largely on the recipe, or just your personal preference.
Some of the most popular pasta shapes are:
- Cannelloni
- Farfalle
- Fettuccine
- Fusilli
- Lasagna
- Macaroni
- Penne
- Ravioli
- Rigatoni
- Spaghetti
We’ll talk about each of these popular pastas in detail next!
10 most popular pastas
Some of the most popular pasta shapes are listed below (in alphabetical order, not in order of popularity!).
- Cannelloni
Cannelloni is a large stuffed pasta shape. It’s typically stuffed with a filling including meat and cheese, but it can also be meat-free for vegetarian versions.
Speaking of cheese – one of the most popular types of cheese for stuffed pasta is ricotta, a soft cheese that is also used in lasagna.
- Farfalle (bowtie pasta)
Farfalle pasta is not only a fun pasta shape (kids love it!), but it’s versatile and can be used in both hot and cold pasta dishes. One of the most popular uses for farfalle is in cold pasta salads, and multicolored farfalle is especially pleasing to the eye when used in pasta salads. (It’s colored with different types of vegetable powders!)
- Fettuccine
Fettuccine alfredo is one of the most popular pasta dishes, so it’s not surprising that fettuccine is a popular pasta shape.
Fettuccine is long and flat with a width of around 6 millimeters. If you want to make fettuccine alfredo with it, you’ll need to add heavy cream, parmesan, butter, and garlic to your shopping list!
- Fusilli
There are a few different corkscrew-shaped pastas, and fusilli is one of them. How does it compare to other spiral-shaped pastas like rotini? Fusilli has larger spirals, which make it a good choice for capturing thicker, chunkier sauces, while rotini is better suited for lighter sauces and pasta salads.
- Lasagna
Lasagna is one of the most popular pasta dishes in the United States and is made from lasagne noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, sausage, tomatoes, and other ingredients.
By the way, if you’re wondering if it’s lasagna or lasagne, here’s the scoop: lasagne is the plural form of lasagna, a type of pasta shape. The names for pasta are usually listed in the plural form because you use more than one piece (one piece of pasta in spaghetti is actually called spaghetto!), but here in the US people like to spell it with an a at the end (lasagna).
- Macaroni
Macaroni (referred to as maccheroni in Italy) is a short, narrow tubular pasta shape. Regular macaroni is straight, while curved macaroni is referred to as “elbow macaroni”. (In Italy, elbow pasta is gomiti pasta – it gets a bit confusing when comparing pasta in the United States and Italy!)
In Italy, the term ‘maccheroni’ is a generic term referring to a variety of pasta made from durum wheat semolina pasta.
- Penne
Penne pasta is a versatile pasta. It’s cylinder-shaped with angled edges and ridges on the outside and comes from the word for “pen” because of its resemblance to a quill.
Baked pasta dishes often call for penne, but penne can be used in a variety of pasta dishes – even simple ones like being tossed in butter and pesto!
- Ravioli
Ravioli is the most popular stuffed pasta shape. It’s usually stuffed with meat and/or cheese sauce as well as spinach, but the fillings can vary.
- Rigatoni
Rigatoni is similar to penne, but it has straight edges instead of angled ones. Rigatoni is a larger pasta shape than penne, which is another way the two differ.
Rigatoni is great for chunky sauces and is also a good choice for baked pasta dishes.
- Spaghetti
Spaghetti is likely the most popular pasta shape in the world! The typical dish you probably associate spaghetti with is spaghetti bolognese, which is spaghetti served with a meat sauce consisting of ground meat (typically beef, but sausage can also be used), tomatoes, garlic, and herbs.
FAQs:
Spaghetti is the most popular pasta shape worldwide, including the United States and Italy!
The different pasta shapes can be broken down into four shapes: sheet (lasagne), stuffed (ravioli), short (macaroni), and long (spaghetti).
Angel hair pasta, vermicelli, and capellini are all thinner than spaghetti. You can also buy “thin spaghetti” which is simply a thinner version of regular spaghetti, which is usually around 2 millimeters in diameter.
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