Pronounced roo-OH-tay.ĭescription: One for the kids. This pumpkin cannelloni is one of our favourite recipes. Extra cheese is scattered on top, like with a lasagne. The pasta is formed into large, hollow tubesīest eaten with: Cannelloni always comes stuffed with something or other – meat, cheese, or a seafood mixture usually, then is covered with a sauce and baked. Pronounced CAN-eh-lone-ee.ĭescription: Translates to ‘big reeds’ in Italian. You could also try fettuccine con verdure with seasonal vegetables. Fettuccine alfredo, one of the most common dishes to use this pasta, is made with a rich butter, cream, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese sauce. Some say that fettuccine originated in Rome, although nowadays you’re more likely to find it spelt ‘fettuccin i’, because of America’s obsession with it.īest eaten with: Rich and creamy sauces. Probably one of the most popular pasta shapes, because it provides such a great surface for catching sauces. Pronounced feh-too-CHEE-nay.ĭescription: Made from flat sheets of pasta, cut into ribbon-shaped strands. Mini farfalle are made for use in soups, too. Good in cold pasta salads, or warm main meals with a light and creamy sauce. Fondly referred to as bow pasta, or butterfly pasta (we think they look more like the former), they are essentially rectangular pieces of pasta pinched in the middle.īest eaten with: Very versatile this one. Pronounced far-FAH-leh.ĭescription: Farfalle dates back to the 1500s and was first eaten in the Lombardy region of north Italy. Don’t forget to top with a grating of Pecorino cheese. The locals love the light, spicy sauce with pancetta and red pepper flakes. There’s a thin, straw-like hole down the centre of each strand, and this type of pasta originated in central Italy.īest eaten with: Try bucatini alla’matriciana when in Rome. Pronounced boo-cah-TEE-nee.ĭescription: Coming from the word ‘buco’, meaning ‘hole’ in Italian, bucatini is thicker than regular spaghetti pasta and is great for twisting round one’s fork. Simply tossed with a glug of good olive oil is nice, too. It only takes two minutes to boil.īest eaten with: Generally speaking, angel hair should be eaten alongside delicate tomato or broth-based sauces the Neapolitans serve it only with shrimp and vegetables. Pronounced cap-eh-lee dah-anj-eh-lo.ĭescription: The thinnest of all pasta, it comes in long, delicate strands and is often used in Asian cooking too. So while it's not a straightforward topic, this guide might help you find new types of pasta to try in your cooking. Some shapes are very similar to one another, and you may even find that the names for something that looks identical will change from region to region in Italy.

Here we've rounded up some of the most common types beyond the store cupboard staples of spaghetti, linguini and fusilli. There are hundreds of different pasta shapes out there, to complement hundreds of recipes. Confuse your fettucini with your farfalle? This guide will tell you everything you need to know.

Spiral tube pasta