Official food thread v. Jingle.star

[Adami]

Yes. It matters.

Need it matter to everyone? Nah. So if it doesn't matter to you, then that's fine. But the shape changes the experience, even if it doesn't change the taste.

[cramx3]

Yes, you sound like my irish friend talking to me, an italian about pasta

Flavor comes out the same, but texture can be different.

Personally I put rigatoni in the A tier because I like how you can get like a bolegnese sauce to fill up the larger hole than say a penne.  But Penne is better for a sauce that isn't meaty, like vodka sauce. 

I also love like the stupid shapes for mac and cheese, anything to get the cheese in the little crevices created.  We recently found beer mug pasta and made a mac and cheese with it that worked real well. 

I actually don't really like spaghetti too much, I find it can be too thick.  Spaghettini is better for my tastes as I also find angel hair to be a bit too thin. 

[Adami]

Yes, you sound like my irish friend talking to me, an italian about pasta

Flavor comes out the same, but texture can be different.

Personally I put rigatoni in the A tier because I like how you can get like a bolegnese sauce to fill up the larger hole than say a penne.  But Penne is better for a sauce that isn't meaty, like vodka sauce. 

I also love like the stupid shapes for mac and cheese, anything to get the cheese in the little crevices created.  We recently found beer mug pasta and made a mac and cheese with it that worked real well. 

I actually don't really like spaghetti too much, I find it can be too thick.  Spaghettini is better for my tastes as I also find angel hair to be a bit too thin.

Totally about spaghetti. Don't mind it at all, and I also agree that often angel hair is too thin. I've found Capellini to be ideal.

[El Barto]

Some colleagues of mine and I got into a pretty heated debate about pasta today and I wanted to bring my ideas here to see if I am truly mad or if my coworkers are.

Here is the context: They were "ranking" pasta noodle shapes. Things like "Orzo is S tier, but Rigortony is D tier, while Spaghetti is A tier."

This baffled me, to me they're all just pasta! What difference does it make whether you make a lasagna with Orzo or a baked Ziti with Penne? I have never once in my life cared about that. But my coworkers hooted and hollered around the water cooler at the thought that I might not mind some cheese wrapped in spaghetti as opposed to, say, a Ravioli. To me, it all tastes the same, and being picky about which specific pasta is involved simply does not matter. In fact, I'd even consider it a first world problem to mind.

Am I crazy?

One variety of pasta is no better or worse than another in and of itself, so assigning grades to them is silly. For a specific dish the type of pasta can make a big difference, though. Sometimes the shape matters. More often the thickness matters. Generally you're going to want the right ratio of pasta to stuff (thickness), and your going to want the stuff to combine well with the pasta (shape).

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

Yes. It matters.

Need it matter to everyone? Nah. So if it doesn't matter to you, then that's fine. But the shape changes the experience, even if it doesn't change the taste.

Interesting take. I guess food is mostly a thing to keep me alive and not a thing to be enjoyed so I don't really understand what you mean by experience but if others get experiential pleasure from food, that's cool I guess.

Yes, you sound like my irish friend talking to me, an italian about pasta

I had no idea you were Italian, but I get what you mean about mac and cheese pasta filling in crevices. But with non-mac 'n cheese dishes usually the sauce isn't that sticky anyway and doesn't or wouldn't really stay on anyway. At least that is my experience.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

One variety of pasta is no better or worse than another in and of itself, so assigning grades to them is silly. For a specific dish the type of pasta can make a big difference, though. Sometimes the shape matters. More often the thickness matters. Generally you're going to want the right ratio of pasta to stuff (thickness), and your going to want the stuff to combine well with the pasta (shape).

This sounds like a much more eloquently put way of what I was trying to say during the debate. My point was the way it's cooked matters more to me. For example, maybe a baked thing needs a thicker noodle to avoid it from getting too crispy, or whatever. But to rank them seems really bizarre to me. Thanks for putting it well

[Adami]

One variety of pasta is no better or worse than another in and of itself, so assigning grades to them is silly. For a specific dish the type of pasta can make a big difference, though. Sometimes the shape matters. More often the thickness matters. Generally you're going to want the right ratio of pasta to stuff (thickness), and your going to want the stuff to combine well with the pasta (shape).

As Marc pointed out, it's also about how different shapes hold the sauce.

[El Barto]

As Marc pointed out, it's also about how different shapes hold the sauce.

Yeah, that was the combining thing I was getting at.

[Adami]

Yeah, that was the combining thing I was getting at.

Gotcha.

For me, it's a bit more arbitrary since I'm a vegetarian, so there's rarely a super thick robust sauce I'm using. And sometimes I can't quite quantify or explain why a shape works better.

Elbow macaroni and cheese? Yes.
Spaghetti and cheese? No.
Spaghetti and cacio e pepe? Yes.

Does that make sense? Nope.

[cramx3]

I had no idea you were Italian

I'm American but my heritage is half Italian, my father is 100% Italian as a 3rd generation in this country from Brooklyn.  I ate a lot of pasta growing up. 

I actually hardly eat pasta though, I've grown into a rice and beans guy over pasta which is hilarious because my gf is 100% Honduran 2nd generation in US but prefers pasta over rice and beans. 

[El Barto]

Gotcha.

For me, it's a bit more arbitrary since I'm a vegetarian, so there's rarely a super thick robust sauce I'm using. And sometimes I can't quite quantify or explain why a shape works better.

Elbow macaroni and cheese? Yes.
Spaghetti and cheese? No.
Spaghetti and cacio e pepe? Yes.

Does that make sense? Nope.

That's about right. You want tubes for mac and cheese (I go with large tubes, myself). For minimalist "sauces," like your cacio e pepe you want longer, hardier pasta. If I do a quick butter/oil + parm thing I go with fettuccine. More surface area and a little more bite. What I never got was using spaghetti for hearty meat sauces. I typically blow that off and do a baked ziti if I'm making a good meat sauce.

[King Postwhore]

cacio e pepe is my next adventure. But, with chickpea pasta.

[TAC]

cacio e pepe is my next adventure. But, with chickpea pasta.

Wait. You can spell cacio e pepe, or did you just copy/paste from Adami's post?

[Jamesman42]

Wait. You can spell cacio e pepe, or did you just copy/paste from Adami's post?

No, he just proved the Infinite Monkey Theorem is true.

[Jamesman42]

Some colleagues of mine and I got into a pretty heated debate about pasta today and I wanted to bring my ideas here to see if I am truly mad or if my coworkers are.

Here is the context: They were "ranking" pasta noodle shapes. Things like "Orzo is S tier, but Rigortony is D tier, while Spaghetti is A tier."

This baffled me, to me they're all just pasta! What difference does it make whether you make a lasagna with Orzo or a baked Ziti with Penne? I have never once in my life cared about that. But my coworkers hooted and hollered around the water cooler at the thought that I might not mind some cheese wrapped in spaghetti as opposed to, say, a Ravioli. To me, it all tastes the same, and being picky about which specific pasta is involved simply does not matter. In fact, I'd even consider it a first world problem to mind.

Am I crazy?

Texture is important to a lot of people. Some pasta is smooth, other has ridges or other curvature/raised surfaces that bring a different experience in tasting and chewing. Size, holding the sauce, thickness, how it's cooked, all those nuances add up. Unless you're just shoving the pasta in your mouth and chewing it fast?

[King Postwhore]

Wait. You can spell cacio e pepe, or did you just copy/paste from Adami's post?

I quoted him so you could see it to spell it silly.

You should YouTube Babbish cooking it. Very informative.   

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

Unless you're just shoving the pasta in your mouth and chewing it fast?

Yeah, usually. Food isn't something pleasurable for me and it's just a way to not die/starve, so the faster I eat, the fast I can get back to doing what I want/need to do like work, exercise, listen to music, post on this forum, etc.

[cramx3]

So all that pasta talk... a basic meat sauce and rigatoni

[Adami]

So all that pasta talk... a basic meat sauce and rigatoni

Hmmm....









USE FRESH PARM YOU MONSTER!

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

So all that pasta talk... a basic meat sauce and rigatoni

Weird, I thought those noodles were called Penne

[cramx3]

Weird, I thought those noodles were called Penne

Penne is similar but a smaller tube. Maybe half the size, or even smaller in this case, this rigatoni is pretty big and thick.  This brand is really good, I keep buying it as my go to pasta these days.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

I doubled checked you because I believe you, but honestly, that's one of the most absurd things I've ever heard in my life. They are the same thing and the diameter of the noodle is what makes them totally different classifications of noodle? What the actual fuck?

What's the maximum diameter size of a Penne before it grows up and becomes a Rigatoni?

[Adami]

I doubled checked you because I believe you, but honestly, that's one of the most absurd things I've ever heard in my life. They are the same thing and the diameter of the noodle is what makes them totally different classifications of noodle? What the actual fuck?

What's the maximum diameter size of a Penne before it grows up and becomes a Rigatoni?

That's true for most of it. Spaghetti, Capellini, Angel Hair, Spaghettini, etc. All the same thing just different size.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

My question stands. What is the cutoff between Penne and Rigatoni? If there is no official classification maintained by the Government of Italy or the Holy Roman Catholic Church, then it's all just made up bullshit

[Adami]

My question stands. What is the cutoff between Penne and Rigatoni? If there is no official classification maintained by the Government of Italy or the Holy Roman Catholic Church, then it's all just made up bullshit

Penne is also a different shape in that the openings aren't flat circles.

Penne:


Rigatoni:



And I do believe that the Holy Roman Catholic Church issued a decree on this in 1342.

[lonestar]

My question stands. What is the cutoff between Penne and Rigatoni? If there is no official classification maintained by the Government of Italy or the Holy Roman Catholic Church, then it's all just made up bullshit

Everything is made up bullshit anyways, whether it's official or not.


I don't know of any standard for it, unlike the flat pastas (spag, linguini, fett, etc)which do have set sizes. Most pasta sizes and shapes are just a standard that have been accepted for centuries, long enough to not care about your ignorance of pasta lore.

[cramx3]

Penne is also a different shape in that the openings aren't flat circles.

Yup, that too

[El Barto]

And I do believe that the Holy Roman Catholic Church issued a decree on this in 1342.

Right. Pope Innocent III. Isn't that what led to the downfall of the Byzantine Empire?

[PMSummer]

I'm not Italian or super into pasta like some others here, but there's one pasta-like dish that I absolutely adore: gnocchi. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but does gnocchi even count as pasta? I mean, it's made with potatoes. But it's served in a similar way to pasta, so I'm not sure where it fits in the grand pasta hierarchy. Either way it tastes great in a spinach and tomato sauce.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

I always thought Gnocchi was made out of rice

[El Barto]

I'm not Italian or super into pasta like some others here, but there's one pasta-like dish that I absolutely adore: gnocchi. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but does gnocchi even count as pasta? I mean, it's made with potatoes. But it's served in a similar way to pasta, so I'm not sure where it fits in the grand pasta hierarchy. Either way it tastes great in a spinach and tomato sauce.

Gnocci is a dumpling (and made of potatoes). That said, I'm not sure what separates a dumpling from pasta.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

Gnocci is a dumpling (and made of potatoes). That said, I'm not sure what separates a dumpling from pasta.

In my experience dumplings have something in them (other than pasta sauce )

Example: Shrimp Dumplings.

EDIT: I guess that makes Ravioli a dumpling, huh?

[cramx3]

I literally had this discussion recently with my gf about gnocchi, which I love.  It's potato based, but it's always on the pasta menu so I guess it may be considered pasta.  I usually think of it so because of that and the dishes it's served as. 

[El Barto]

In my experience dumplings have something in them (other than pasta sauce )

Example: Shrimp Dumplings.

EDIT: I guess that makes Ravioli a dumpling, huh?

I think we're venturing into "is a hotdog a sandwich" territory. 

Asian dumplings are stuffed, and I'd consider them about the same as pirogi. At the same time, Asian dumplings are steamed or fried. Pirogi are boiled then sauteed. Dumplings as I think of them are boiled, like pasta. Think chicken and dumplings.

[Adami]

Gnocchi is one of my favorite dishes (just made a gluten free version for my wife) and I'd call it a crossover. It's pasta but it's not purely pasta. Of course there are different styles of gnocchi, and I'm mostly referring to the traditional kind.