# What is the core of your pasta dinner? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-core-of-your-pasta-dinner/574718 "2011-03-15T00:27:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-core-of-your-pasta-dinner/574718/42 "2011-03-16T19:40:39Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I find that most pasta I get when I eat out is way oversauced, but, as I said above, I’m a pasta guy, and that’s how most people seem to like it (and the poll bears this out.) For me [this](http://steamykitchen.com/6986-scarpettas-spaghetti-with-fresh-tomato-sauce-and-garlic-basil-oil.html) or [this](http://www.turkishfoodandrecipes.com/2008/12/spaghetti-with-tomato-sauce-domates.html) is a “properly” sauced spaghetti, while [this](http://x95.xanga.com/4d4d402647d30121052855/m87218825.jpg) is way too much damned sauce. (Which is part of the reason I’m not a big fan of local favorite Maggiano’s.) My preference would be somewhere between those two extremes. Even though I’m a sauce=core voter, I definitely want to have more pasta than sauce. I like around a two parts pasta to one part sauce ratio, adjusted to the particular sauce and pasta. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-core-of-your-pasta-dinner/574718/43 "2011-03-16T20:06:46Z")
Damn, now I’m jonesing for a meatball sub with marinara and provolone. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-core-of-your-pasta-dinner/574718/44 "2011-03-16T20:23:58Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Damn, now I’m jonesing for a meatball sub with marinara and provolone. Despite all my posts about me being more of a “light on the sauce” pasta guy, last night’s dinner was inspired by your posts over the last couple days: I made a make-shift Sunday-gravy type thing with chicken thighs, some sausage, and homemade beef-pork-veal meatballs. (I didn’t have the time or patience for short ribs or pork shoulder last night, so I had to pick quicker cooking meats.) There’s some leftovers, so I’m thinking baked ziti for tonight. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-core-of-your-pasta-dinner/574718/45 "2011-03-16T21:12:39Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Despite all my posts about me being more of a “light on the sauce” pasta guy, last night’s dinner was inspired by your posts over the last couple days: I made a make-shift Sunday-gravy type thing with chicken thighs, some sausage, and homemade beef-pork-veal meatballs. (I didn’t have the time or patience for short ribs or pork shoulder last night, so I had to pick quicker cooking meats.) There’s some leftovers, so I’m thinking baked ziti for tonight. 🙂 Let’s see: I can be in Chicago in five or six hours. What time is dinner? ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-core-of-your-pasta-dinner/574718/46 "2011-03-17T04:24:35Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I find that most pasta I get when I eat out is way oversauced, but, as I said above, I’m a pasta guy, and that’s how most people seem to like it (and the poll bears this out.) For me [this](http://steamykitchen.com/6986-scarpettas-spaghetti-with-fresh-tomato-sauce-and-garlic-basil-oil.html) or [this](http://www.turkishfoodandrecipes.com/2008/12/spaghetti-with-tomato-sauce-domates.html) is a “properly” sauced spaghetti, while [this](http://x95.xanga.com/4d4d402647d30121052855/m87218825.jpg) is way too much damned sauce. (Which is part of the reason I’m not a big fan of local favorite Maggiano’s.) Well, what I found was that this particular Meatball Haus was trying to be too trendy and delicate with their saucing tech on spaghettini. I didn’t like the gauge of spaghetti… too delicate. They had a huge pile… a plate’s worth of plain spaghetti done well, because the pasta was too thin to achieve al dente’, skipped right to overdone in keeping and reheating… and for this huge pile of fuckin’ low gauge spaghetti with a 1/4 cup scoop of sauce over top, then layered with a chicken schnitzel and a grating of old socks peccorino and parm. I asked for extra sauce from a busgirl and she brought me another 1/4 cup of sauce in a small “coleslaw dish”. That was perfect… got to see all of the herbs and large chunks of roasted garlic floating around… sauced my pasta perfectly. It was not at all wet. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2011, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-core-of-your-pasta-dinner/574718/47 "2011-03-17T04:41:54Z")
It was actually one of the better chicken parms I have had, it just needed one extra scoop of sauce for perfection. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-core-of-your-pasta-dinner/574718.md?page=2)