The Principal Pasta Shapes Used in Italian Cooking

It is almost impossible to create a definitive list of pasta shapes and their names. For one thing, names for the same shapes change from one region to another. Furthermore, in the case of factory-made pasta, the names of some shapes are the fanciful invention of the pasta maker. The following is a list of the most common shapes used in Italian cooking with suggestions for what kinds of sauces are best suited to them. I have listed long shapes from thin to thick, then tubular and special shapes from small to large.