Pairing Pasta with Sauces

Featured Pro: Tyler Florence
Category: Cooking
Time: 0:53


TYLER FLORENCE: Hi, everybody. I’m Tyler Florence here in Arthur Abbey in the Bronx with a GMC Trade Secret.

You know, when it comes to making pasta, I love pasta just like the next guy. When you’re at the grocery store making a couple of choices, here are some things to think about.

Now, for the most part, there are no hard and fast rules. Every sauce, for the most part, will go with every pasta. But there are a couple of things you want to think about when it comes to flat pasta; say, spaghetti, linguini or fettuccine. You want, like, sort of a lighter sauce, like a pomodoro or a cream sauce or even a fresh pesto, because you want the sauce to really kind of drip and glaze down the pasta.

But if you have a chunkier sauce – say, a puttanesca or even a bolognese – a bolognese can go with a wide noodle pasta, say a pappardelle. But one thing that I really like to use a lot is sort of a wide noodle pasta like this rigatoni, because it has a little hole on the inside and all the sauce can really kind of go in, so it’s nice and juicy. And this is even a great pasta to, say, make macaroni and cheese with.

I’m Tyler Florence, and that’s my tip.