What pasta type goes best with ragu?

by Jennera
(Dallas, Texas)

I am cooking an eggplant and roasted pepper ragu.

What kind of pasta would you recommend for a thick sauce like this?

Thank you!

Answer: Hey Jennera,

To the best of my knowledge there isn't actually a hard and fast rule about this.

As you can see from my best ever ragu feed - on this honeymoon page - it's possible to eat ragu with long pasta such as tagliatelle. In fact many restaurants serve it this way.

However my personal recommendation (and that of my trusted mamma-in-law!) is a short n' chunky 'holey' pasta such as rigatoni.

The reason is simple: fat little tubes such as this capture more sauce, which means you're left with less swimming in the dish than sometimes happens when eating ragu with long pasta types.

Hope that helps. If you're entertaining and want to be super-classy, I'd choose a green tagliatelle (as it looks great), but for effectiveness I'd 'go short'.

Your sauce sounds delicious by the way. Please do feel free to add it to my site via this page for others to enjoy, if so inclined!

Matt

PS: And if you're a meat eater, here are a couple of ragu options from my site to try next time: this traditional slow-cooked ragu recipe, and/or this quicker ragu-like pasta with meat sauce.