The best shapes for norma
Fried aubergine in tomato, finished with salted ricotta grated over the top. Sicilian. The aubergine is cut in cubes and stays in cubes, so the dish is a sauce with distinct solid pieces sitting in it rather than a smooth dressing.
Fried eggplant cubes in tomato with ricotta salata. The cubes need cavities or channels to sit in, tubes and curls beat strands.
Sicilian. Canonical shapes: rigatoni, casarecce.
Each piece is a narrow ribbon rolled in on itself, so the cut carries an open channel down its length and a loose s curve at the ends.
Rigatoni is built for sauces with solids in them.
The curved body cups sauce on the outside while the open split traps smaller bits and liquid along its channel.
The spiral ridges do real work.
What we would not put it on
Fine strands. Cubes and strands do not travel together on a fork, and the aubergine ends up eaten separately after the pasta has gone.
Want it the other way around? Start from a shape in the Pairing Finder.
Stay in the loop
From the Almanac
Updates from Pasta Almanac, when there is something worth sharing.