Which pasta shape goes with which sauce?

Spaghetti, linguine and tagliatelle offer a lot of surface and pair best with thin, oily or tomato-based sauces. Classic examples are spaghetti aglio e olio, where the garlic oil coats every strand, and carbonara, whose egg-and-cheese cream sticks perfectly to spaghetti or linguine.

Wide ribbons such as fettuccine and pappardelle carry richer sauces: a slow-cooked ragù or a creamy mushroom sauce gathers on the broad noodles instead of sliding off.

Penne, rigatoni and fusilli catch pieces of vegetables, minced meat or sausage in their tubes and twists. A chunky vegetable sugo or a hearty Bolognese works far better with rigatoni than with thin spaghetti.

Ridges and grooves (rigate) hold even more sauce. Short shapes also excel baked: pasta al forno with penne or rigatoni keeps its structure in the oven.

Small shapes like ditalini and orzo belong in soups such as minestrone, while orecchiette collect peas and small pieces in their little 'ears'.

Filled pasta like ravioli and tortellini needs no more than brown butter, sage or a light tomato sauce — the filling is the star, so keep the sauce deliberately simple.