# I need a pasta guide!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 10, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532 "2004-10-10T23:37:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2004, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/1 "2004-10-10T23:37:44Z")
Yes, a pasta guide! A nice visual reference as to what the pasta looks like and what it’s name is!
I sent Mrs. Mercotan out for a particular pasta for which I have a hankering. Long, spaghetti-like thin strands, but with 4 or 5 ridges on them the entire length, the better to hold the sauce. I thought it was rigatoni. It’s not.
My attempts to find a decent guide have not been fruitful. Can any of my fellow dopers link me to such a thing? So I can easily differentiate rigatoni from capellini, ziti, linguine, vermicelli, mostaciolli, and so forth?
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/2 "2004-10-10T23:46:11Z")
There’s a LOT of pasta guides out there, but my favorite is Nika Hazleton’s Pasta Cookbook.
Lots of recipes of course, but in the front of the book there are pictures and lists of many pasta shapes. Also has info on pasta itself, both Western and Oriental, health information, how to make you own pasta, and how to select pasta making equipment.
Not sure about it’s print status, but IMHO, it’s one of the best.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2004, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/3 "2004-10-10T23:53:32Z")
Thanks, **Baker** , but I was hoping for a nice on-line guide. If none turns up, I’ll visit my local book store.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2004, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/4 "2004-10-10T23:57:05Z")
Are you looking for Fusilli lunghi? Try [this link.](http://www.hormel.com/templates/knowledge/knowledge.asp?id=558&catitemid=45)
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### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/5 "2004-10-11T00:00:00Z")
[Pasta.com](http://www.pasta.com/products.cfm?id=1) has a bunch of pastas available (looks like over 40). Maybe that would help ya out.
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/6 "2004-10-11T00:01:13Z")
This looks pretty complete
[http://www.switcheroo.com/Pasta.html](http://www.switcheroo.com/Pasta.html)
> [@](#):
>
> “bigoli Pronunciation: BEE-go-lee Notes: This Venetian pasta resembles thick spaghetti, only it has a rough surface to better absorb flavorful sauces. It’s good with shellfish, beans, or hearty meat sauces.”
This may be your stuff.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/7 "2004-10-11T00:24:33Z")
Well, it’s not fusilli. It may be bigoli, but I can’t find an illustration of the stuff close-up. And the name isn’t familiar. [Pasta.com](http://Pasta.com) is sadly incomplete in it’s listings.
Why, oh why must I suffer so?
Thanks for trying! That bucatini looks pretty good.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/8 "2004-10-11T01:10:26Z")
Well, a little search says that bucatini is also known as perciatelli. That name seems more familiar to me. It’s spaghetti like and it has a tiny hole through it.
I haven’t found a picture of it yet but my computer is rather slow, maybe you’d have better luck.
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### Author:  [@catnoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catnoe)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/9 "2004-10-11T01:43:09Z")
Barilla has put out a ‘spagetti rigati’. It’s like regular spaghetti but cooks faster because of the grooves cut down the length of it.
Rigatoni, Ziti, and Penne are tube shaped pastas, cut at different angles and some have grooves the length of them. Good for holding sauces.
Vermicelli, Angel Hair are very thin versions of spaghetti, not my favorites at all. Not good for much as I see it.
Fettuccini is a flattened spaghetti, good with cream sauces.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/10 "2004-10-11T01:49:00Z")
I found a [professional pasta guide](http://www.professionalpasta.it/dir_1/go_1(1).htm) online.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/11 "2004-10-11T01:58:51Z")
**catnoe** , you found it! Spaghetti Rigati was it! _That’s_ why I was thinking rigatoni! Thank you!
Sadly, your link isn’t too functional for me, **Wile E**. Most of the photos won’t open.
Thanks, all.
Spaghetti Rigati! Spaghetti Rigati! The better to hold QtM’s primo pasta sauce close unto itself!
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/12 "2004-10-11T02:43:27Z")
> [@Catnoe](#):
>
> Angel Hair are very thin versions of spaghetti…
Its my favorite for, I think, two reasons.
The first is that it holds a lot of sauce.
The second is because all those little strands feel so fun when each ‘bursts’ as I bite them.
It also cooks quickly.
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### Author:  [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2004, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-a-pasta-guide/268532/13 "2004-10-11T13:09:30Z")
Some of the Barilla names are unfamiliar to me. I like their bavette and particularly their mafaldine. Since I would have called the latter “curled pappardelle” I found [this](http://www.foodsubs.com/PastaRibbons.html) to tell me the difference.
I recommend the mafaldine. The edges hold globs of sauce well, the middle gets coated with specks of sauce and the breadth wraps well around lumps of meat in your ragu - or meatballs or bits of sausage or whatever.