I have shared with you that my husband is currently posted in Vancouver on an imposed restriction status. We requested this status so not to sell our house and move our primary residence to Vancouver and in order for me to maintain my current employment. Which essentially means I live in our primary residence here in Victoria and Will lives in Vancouver. The distance can be a challenge, but we talked it out as a couple and made the decision this was the best move for us at this stage of our life, with our end game of retirement in sight. It is not always easy, but life is often not easy, and hard is character and relationship building.
We have had a very traditional relationship in our 35 plus years as a couple, what I call very European in nature with pink jobs (cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping) and blue jobs (home repairs, lawn care, outdoor work). While that may sound sexist, I think that it was really very much just our upbringing and what I believe to be cultural. Or at least it was when we were growing up. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t particularly like dirt under my nails or greasy hands, and have always been most comfortable in the kitchen, so the concept of pink and blue jobs is just fine with me.
Not living together day to day has definitely has had to push Will out of his comfort zone in the kitchen. I have been proud watching his skills expand and the air fryer has been a welcome appliance on the kitchen counter for him. I remember calling him one night after he first moved over and being told I was interrupting his YouTube “instructional video” on how to make Pad Thai — like who is this man and where is my husband??! I also had a good chuckle a few weeks back when he shared that he thought maybe he bought the wrong pasta at the grocery store when he picked up a package of “capelli d’angelo” or otherwise known as capellini or angel hair pasta.
I am sure you ask yourself, and why is that amusing? Well, my darling husband is a tried and true “Ragu” lover (thank goodness we can’t purchase that in Canada anymore!) and well, Ragu just does not go with a pasta like angel hair. And from that conversation, this post was born.
Pairing a pasta with a sauce is really a thing and certain pastas are just not meant to go with the certain sauces. I know, I know: rules – must we really? Take this capellini Will bought: capellini is long, very thin and almost fragile in nature, so it doesn’t like heavy sauces that may actually break the pasta as you fork it up. So really not the kind of pasta to be topped by the kind of sauce Will prefers. But take that ragu or a meaty Bolognaise sauce and coat it on a tube pasta like rigatoni or penne rigate or even pappardelle: a thicker ribbon liked pasta that can take a heavier sauce. As for that capellini, it would make a great addition to my chicken soup or tossed in lemon and served under a chicken breast. Pasta and sauce are kind of like chips: rippled chips are way better for chip dip than the originals that snap in your fingers as soon as dip it! Just saying.
There are endless kinds of pasta that you can purchase. Short pasta, long pasta, sheet pasta, filled pasta…. and they all deserve the best which means pairing them with the most appropriate sauce. It’s almost like going down a rabbit whole with all the different types of sauces and the pasta to serve it with. Here are some suggestions for the types of sauces to use with different kinds of noodles:
- Thin long noodles like Spaghetti, Spaghettini, Angel Hair and Capellini deserve light sauces, like a marinara, brown butter sauce or garlic oil.
- Flat long noodles liked Fettuccine, Linguine, Tagliatelle and Pappardelle enjoy a soak in rich creamy sauces. Alfredo or a spicy amatriciana sauce. Tagliatelle and Pappardelle can handle the chunky Bolognese or ragu sauce.
- Long tubular pasta (similar to spaghetti but with an open tube down the centre) like Bucatini or Perciatelli prefer fluid and loose sauces; an amatriciana or buttery style sauce.
- Short tube pastas like Penne, Rigatoni, Ziti and Cavatappi enjoy bathing in sauces which range from creamer to hearty, both chunky and smooth. You might even try a vodka sauce on them. These kinds of pasta work well in soups, salads and casseroles. If the name includes “rigate”, the pasta also has ridges which makes it easier for the sauce to adhere to.
- Small tube pasta like macaroni and ditalini really like to be baked with creamy cheese sauces. They can also be enjoyed in soup or as a pasta salad.
- Short shaped pasta with ridges, ruffles, and curls can take a rich heartier sauce with bits of meat or vegetables. Try a pesto, chunky marinara or carbonara
with this kind of pasta which includes Farfalle (bow tie), Fusilli, Gemelli, Cavatelli or Rotelle (wagon wheels). - Large and wide pasta like lasagna, manicotti or large shells: well, these can hold a Bolognese or bechamel sauce and the shells can be stuffed and smothered in a marinara.
Writing this post today reminded me of how pasta still remains one of my guilty pleasures for a meal. I was also struck by the memory of one of my first “adult” cookbook that I still have on my bookshelf: check out this old cookbook below. And the next time you go to serve pasta for a meal, try a new noodle and pair it with an alternative sauce. Variety is the spice of life, and trust me, it will be better than a jar of Ragu. And don’t forget the shaker cheese!
Stay tuned for a future post sharing a new sauce and don’t forget my Pesto Pasta with Shrimp and Pine Nuts. You can find that recipe in my post called “Good Friends Are Like a Good Bottle of Wine. They Both Make Life Better” under the “Life” page.
