Pasta Sauces

Pairing Pasta Sauces Pasta Shapes

Pureed, creamy or clinging sauces are best served with such long, thick and sleek pasta shapes as spaghetti, fettuccine, cappellini or linguine pastas that will allow the sauce to flow evenly over the face of the noodle.

When the sauce is both thick and chunky, it is appropriate for any shape of pasta. It is viscous enough to coat long pastas such as fettuccini or spaghetti and its chunks are just rights for filling the gaps in a shell or spiral-shaped pasta.

Chunky sauces are perfect for pasta shape that contains holes or ridges.

Thinner or runnier sauces are better held by pastas that are twisted or curled and even thin delicate pastas. Those shapes trap the liquid within their whorls, so that the sauce coats the pasta surface rather than the plate.

Most Popular Pasta Sauces:

Alfredo: A rich sauce with heavy cream, butter, freshly grated Parmesan cheese and freshly ground black pepper, this sauce is best known as a topping for fettuccine.

Arrabbiata:  Italian for “angry,” this zesty tomato-based sauce gets its heat from chilies and pancetta, a spicy, salty Italian bacon.

Bolognese:  A robust meat sauce also known as ragu.  Hearty with ground beef or pork, pancetta, tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrots and celery.  The sauce is enhanced with a bit of wine, cream and seasoning.

Carbonara:  Made with eggs, cream, Parmesan and bits of bacon.  This sauce is sometimes dotted with fresh green peas before it is poured over hot pasta.

Genovese:  Means originating from Genoa, a coastal city in northwestern Italy, alla Genovese indicates that the dish contains pesto, a fresh, uncooked sauce traditionally made with fresh basil, garlic, Parmesan cheese, pine nuts and olive oil.  Today you can find a myriad of “pesto” sauces from cilantro to sun-dried tomato.

Marinara:  The classic Italian tomato sauce, highly seasoned with onions, garlic and oregano. Popular on pasta, pizza and meats.

Pomodoro:  Literally translated to “golden apple,” this is a basic tomato sauce. The first tomatoes to arrive in Italy were yellow.

Puttanesca:  Intensely fragrant, this flavorful sauce is a blend of tomatoes, onions, black olives, anchovies, capers, garlic and oregano, all simmered with olive oil.

Ragu:  Same as Bolognese, above.