One of the tiniest kinds of pasta you'll find at the supermarket is ancini de pepe. This itty bitty pastina gets its name from the Italian word for peppercorns, though this pasta is even tinier. Much like orzo, ancini de pepe is best used in salads and soups. In fact, it's the pasta that's most commonly used in Italian wedding soup.
You probably didn't know that can of SpaghettiOs you looked forward to as a kid was packed with anelli! Meaning "little rings" in Italian, they're perfect for anything you'd put ditali in, like soups or pasta salads. Of course, you can also make an adult version of those nostalgic bowls of tomatoey goodness. Make a basic tomato sauce, boil the anelli, and stir the pasta into the warm sauce.
At first glance, bucatini looks just like spaghetti. Look again, though, and you'll see this long pasta has a hole running through it. Serve bucatini with carbonara, butter sauces and cream sauces or try this bucatini with sausage and kale.
If you’re a fan of calamari, or even if you’ve only seen it before, you can guess where calamarata gets its name. It’s shaped in the same short and wide, circular tubes that calamari is cut into before it’s often battered and fried. Calamarata is most commonly served in southern Italy with tomatoes and—you guessed it—calamari.
Campanelle is a short, layered noodle with a hollow inside and frilly edges, which means that it works well in pasta salads (like this fresh summer pasta salad) and baked dishes alike. Although campanelle translates to “little bells,” we think they could pass for little tulips, too. If you agree, this springy pasta with prosciutto and peas will be the perfect addition to your weeknight menu as the days get longer and the temperatures get warmer.
Also known as angel hair, the literal translation is "fine hair." This pasta is a thinner version of spaghetti at only about 1/15 of an inch thick. Capellini pairs best with a light sauce, simply tossed with olive oil and herbs or seafood (like lemony scallops with angel hair), so as not to overpower the pasta.
Casarecce, meaning “homemade,” is built to hold sauces incredibly well. When it’s made, the dough is loosely wrapped around a rod to create its almost-tubular shape. This means it will be coated in sauce, and it'll carry some sauce from your plate to your mouth within each noodle too.
This spiral-shaped pasta goes by a few names, including cellentani and serpentini, but you'll likely see it packaged and sold as cavatappi (which means "corkscrew" in Italian). This pasta's unique shape, ridges and bite-size proportion make it extremely versatile. Use cavatappi in pasta salads, baked pasta dishes or served with your favorite sauce. You really cannot go wrong!
Ditali and its smaller cousin ditalini are short, tube-shaped pastas. The name means "thimble" in Italian. Both options are most commonly used in Italian soup recipes like pasta fagioli and minestrone, though you can also use them in cold pasta salads.
You may know these shapes as bow ties, but in Italian, they're actually "butterflies." A kid favorite because of the fun shape, these noodles work well with chunky sauces (try this no-cook fresh tomato sauce) or as the main ingredient in a cold pasta salad (we recommend this summer strawberry salad).