Which of the
Italian Pasta Shapes ?

Ok, so you might have read the pages about italian pasta, its history, its distribution, its consumption, but I have just but a few times written about specific italian pasta shapes.

It is now the moment to get more specific.

Be it dry or fresh pasta, you need to know what you eat in order to feel your italian eating.

By clarifying some facts and covering some further aspects of these pasta formats, you will not only know better what to prepare your pasta with (or what to order) but you will learn some useful and interesting facts too!

I told you that we are going to have fun in our discoveries, and I intend to keep my promise.

To avoid any confusion, this page will be about italian pasta formats, that is, I will tell you about characteristics and aspects of both the more common and less common italian pasta products, plus some indication on the best (or most typical) way to consume them.

Again, I suggest you do not get stuck with this page, but rather that you get out of it what interests you: you will get much more and can always come back at a later stage to deepen the discovery.

I will keep adding new elements, and I will also rely on your help to make sure that whatever deserves to be mentioned is covered.

What you will not find on this page is recipes or indication on preparation of sauces or condiments: please visit the corresponding pages for that and will find links to them whenever relevant anyway.

Ok, that's it with the recommendations - let's get started with our discovery of italian pasta formats.

Without using the distinction between dry and fresh pasta (which you can find here), I will approach this journey by talking about short, long and filled pasta... can it get easier??

La Pasta Lunga Italiana (long italian pasta)

The below list reports some fundamental information on the various long italian pasta shapes, but make sure you click on the links to discover the details!!

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Image	Name	Ingredients	Dry / Fresh	Where
	Spaghetti	Durum Wheat Semolina	Dry	South / All Italy
	Fettuccine	Durum Wheat Semolina + Eggs	Dry	Emilia Romagna / All Italy
	Tagliatelle	Common Wheat Flour + Durum Wheat Semolina + Eggs	Fresh	Emilia-Romagna / All Italy
	Bigoli	Common Wheat Flour	Fresh	Veneto / Part of Lombardy
	Pici	Common Wheat Flour + Eggs	Fresh	Tuscany
	Linguine	Durum Wheat Semolina	Dry	Liguria (Genoa) / All Italy
	Pappardelle	Common Wheat Flour + Eggs	Fresh	Tuscany
	Mafalde	Durum Wheat Semolina	Dry	South / All Italy

La Pasta Italiana Corta (italian short pasta)

The below list reports some fundamental information on the various short italian pasta shapes, but make sure you click on the links to discover the details!!

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Image	Name	Ingredients	Dry / Fresh	Where
	Maccheroni	Durum Wheat	Dry	All / Center
	Sedani	Durum Wheat	Dry	All / Center
	Penne	Durum Wheat	Dry	Center / South
	Conchiglie	Durum Wheat	Dry	South
	Farfalle	Durum Wheat	Dry	All Italy
	Paccheri	Durum Wheat	Dry	Campania (Naples)
	Garganelli	Durum Wheat + Common Wheat + Eggs	Fresh	Emilia Romagna
	Gnocchi	Durum Wheat	Dry	Campania
	Fusilli	Durum Wheat	Dry	Campania
	Trofie	Durum Wheat	Dry	Liguria (Genova)
	Orechiette	Durum Wheat	Dry	Apulia
	Strozzapreti	Durum Wheat	Dry	Romagna
	Rigatoni	Durum Wheat	Dry	Lazio / Campania
	Maltagliati	Durum Wheat + Common Wheat + Eggs	Fresh	North Italy

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