A Quick Guide on What Noodles to Use for Different Pasta Sauces

Did you know that there are more than 350 types of pastas around the world? And noodles that complement a marinara sauce and may not be as good with olive oil-based sauce.

So how do you know which pasta to use for which? Idge Mendiola, assistant editor for Yummy magazine, shares this easy-to-remember rule: “Heavy, thick, and wide noodles are for hearty sauces, while delicate, smooth, and thin noodles are for light sauces.” 

With that in mind, here’s a rundown of the four different pasta bases and what types of pasta to use for them:

1. Marinara


IMAGE Dairy Darilag
Marinara is a red sauce and has tomatoes as its main ingredient. Marinara is considered as one of the heavy pasta sauces. There are many ways to make marinara, but this base usually contains onions, garlic and herbs. The Filipino version of marinara is called spaghetti (even though, technically, spaghetti is a type of pasta). Here are some of the pasta noodles you can use for your marinara:

(from left) Farfalle, bucatini, conchiglie, fettuccine, fusilli, lasagna,

linguine, macaroni, penne, rigatoni, spaghetti

Find a recipe for a tomato marinara sauce here. 


2. Cream


IMAGE Dairy Darilag
As the name suggests, a cream pasta sauce is, well, creamy. It is usually made creamy with milk, butter, cheese and heavy cream. Another Filipino favorite pasta, the carbonara, uses a cream pasta base. Here are some of the pasta noodles you can use for your cream pasta:

(from left) Penne, conchiglie, farfalle, fettuccine, fusilli,

lasagna, linguine, macaroni, rigatoni, spaghetti

Find a recipe for creamy white sauce here.

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3. Oil


IMAGE Dairy Darilag
Olive oil is usually used for oil-based pasta dishes. Garlic is another key ingredient in most. But there are countless other toppings you can add to oil-based pasta sauces like mushroom, tomatoes, prawns and chicken. Here are some the pasta noodles you can use for your oil sauce:

(from left) Fusilli, angel hair, farfalle, fettuccine, macaroni, spaghetti

Find a recipe for creamy white sauce here.


4. Pesto


IMAGE Dairy Darilag
The very word pesto means to pound. So basically, a pesto sauce is a sauce that was essentially made by pounding. The most common pesto sauces contain basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts, cheese and olive oil which are, of course, ground to a cream. Because of the basil, pesto pasta usually has a distinguishable green color. Here are some the pasta noodles you can use for your pesto sauce:

(from left) Angel hair, conchiglie, farfalle, fusilli, linguine, spaghetti 

Find a recipe for creamy white sauce here. 

Pasta noodle images from Chowhound 

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