Ah, yes, the classic Calabrian scubidubatini al formaggio.
My favorite is ziti. My least favorite is thin spaghetti. (I’ve never tried angel hair, but since my complaint about thin spaghetti is that it’s too thin, I’m guessing angel hair would be worse.)
Per the OP, ditalini is what I use to make macaroni salad. Don’t really use it much otherwise.
I like seashells, nice and soft, not hard to eat like normal spaghetti is (ye olde twirling and twirling it on a spoon with a fork trick).
But thin is in!
I’ll eat any pasta, but may favorite is penne rigati, flowed closely by thin spaghetti.
On the other hand, I had fettucini Alfredo tonight and Lord, it was good.
Least favorite: campanelle and ruote (wagon wheels). Too weird.
Alphabet shaped is still big in my household.
I’m such a philistine, I don’t know what most of these pastas are. This site helps.
I’d say manicotti is my favorite. Stuffed with cheese and meat, that is the best.
No idea about the worst. Probably bow tie. Sauce doesn’t stick to bow tie.
Bite your tongue! Orzo is perfect for cold Mediterranean style pasta salads. It’s also great for camping/backpacking too because it takes less time to cook than larger pastas.
Least favorite: lasagna. It’s too big and awful when it’s undercooked, worse when it’s overcooked, and it messes up the sauce-cheese-pasta ratio.
Favorite: Fusilli. Love the way it holds sauce.
Tough one. Pasta = good, and the different shapes serve different purposes, but generally:
I like the long noodle type more than the shorter shapes, and of the long noodles I tend to use Thin Spaghetti the most. Angle Hair is great with just a thin tomato sauce, and linguini is great in the winter with a Bolognese sauce or con vongole.
Of the shapes, I probably care the least for fusilli. Take that, Fusilli Jerry!
I love the way shells hold stuff… but how do you keep them from nesting inside each other?
Nowadays I like linguine or plain spaghetti. Other shapes thend to fall off the fork too easily.
When I was a kid, though, I liked rotin I – the store we went to sold these in boxes marked “wagon wheels” (with pictures of early settlers in covered wagons) or “space wheels” (in boxes with pictures of Von Braun-style space stations)
There were cutouts on the back!
Buitoni also made other shapes – cars, spacemen, and Popeye. I don’t recall seeing these, only the re-imagined Rotini
If you want the “fancy” Italian name for wagon wheels, it’s rotelle or ruote.
Sometimes that works to hold the clam sauce (or tuna, or broccoli, etc) into a delicious pocket. I don’t mind the nesting too much.
Favourite: Tagliatelle
Least Favourite: Conchiglie - I asociate them with crappy pasta salads.
It’s in my post.
I only see rotini in your post, which is a type of twisted/spiral pasta.
Sorry – I must’ve misinterpreted.
Not a big fan of ziti… always seem to be swallowing too much air. (Again, maybe I use the wrong kinds of sauce…)
Favorite very much depends on my mood and such, but I’m definitely a fan of rotini. Not too big, not too small, seems to go well with the kinds of sauce I like to make. Also spaghetti of course.