We were given a pasta machine as a Christmas present from a friend who knew that it deeply pained me that somehow, whilst moving house, the one I had when I was married had vanished. However, with having the new shiny machine it made sense that we studied pasta in Home Ed this term.
We had taken time to learn the different types of pasta.
Whilst investigating one question arose, why do we have different types when it is all pretty much made the same way?
Different types obviously have different purposes and they depend on how they are used and with which ingredients.
Yet, for the boys, this raised more questions:
1. If spaghetti is used for Bolognese then why do we use different pasta?
2. Does different pasta make Bolognese taste any different?
It made sense then that we answered this:
Obviously the first question was easy to answer: I am lazy and tend to buy the same types due to cost. The second needed to be tried and tested.
After some discussion we decided to try with 6 different types.
Animals shapes and Macaroni
Spaghetti and Conchiglie
Fusilli and Penne.
We also, from scratch, made a large batch of Bolognese Ragu.
Now, following from a lot of research (asking on Facebook and Twitter 😉) despite people usually putting the Ragu on top of the pasta in a "dollop" it should be traditionally mixed together.
In a small bowl we mixed it each type with the sauce and then discussed what we thought of each taste and texture.
Macaroni
Macaroni of course isn't a standard pasta that would be used with a richer sauce and can be sweeter. When tasting it there wasn't anything that tasted unpleasant but there was a definite feeling that it was wrong. The thicker tubes definitely changed the texture and eating experience but it wasn't a hit for either the boys or I.
The tube itself did seem to hold more of the liquid aspect of the sauce though.
Animal Shapes
Firstly, who doesn't enjoy pasta shaped like animals? ;)
The boys thought that it would taste better that the macaroni and William speculated that the holes in the shapes would hold some of the mince.
This was far more enjoyable. The idea that it would hold some of the ragu seemed to be true. Each mouthful felt very fulfilling where you had a bit of everything.
Conchiglie
Following the animal shapes the boys instantly thought that the shell shaped would collect more sauce and mince.
This was amazing! The pasta was thin enough to make eating it enjoyable unlike the macaroni and the concave shape definitely captured more of the ragu which made every mouthful an enjoyable; something that was intensified the feeling we had with the animal shapes.
Spaghetti
Traditionally the pasta that is known to go with Bolognese despite the fact that most Italians tend to use tagliatelle. This was a hopeful choice. We had experienced this and had it in many different ways so knew that there was a reason that this combo would work well.
How wrong were we! The spaghetti itself tasted the same that it always had but the combination of the Bolognese suddenly made the texture of spaghetti change.
William, James and I actually spat out our second mouthful because it tasted slimy. The sauce made it wet and slippery and the unless we twisted and wrapped it around the fork tightly then it barely held any of the mince.
I thought long and hard about why it suddenly tasted slimy and I think it was the texture difference of the previous pasta types. The others had been thicker and/or more solid in structure that it created a different experience in our mouths. The previous types had also been fuller due to the way it held the ragu which I think made it less slippery.
Fusilli
This is our go to pasta for most things. We especially love it in pasta bakes but have on quite a few occasions had it with Bolognese. However, after the Spaghetti fiasco we were all unsure. James had by this point surrendered as he couldn't trust what he knew or what I told him so it was just William and I pushing forwards.
We were both quite mixed about it. William knew that it had more texture so should taste nicer that the spaghetti but obviously unsure.
We didn't need to worry as it was brilliant! It, in both of our opinions, tasted on level with the conchiglie. We found that the twists created enough space to capture both the sauce and mince and the texture made eating it more enjoyable. However, the twists didn't capture as much as we found in the shells.
William was still uncertain between these and the conchiglie but he did say after that this was his favourite.
Penne
William initially suggested that this might taste like the macaroni. The shape was similar and both hand a hollow tube centre. He also thought that it would be slimy like the spaghetti as it didn't have much structured shape.
Texture wise William was correct. The lack of texture and shape did make the pasta more slimy but not to the level that spaghetti did. The shape although similar to macaroni was actually bigger and thinner so the taste and experience was different.
The size of the tube did capture the different elements of the ragu but not to the level of the conchiglie.
Conclusion
The three of us scored each out of 10 and then made an average from that to get these results
Macaroni: 6/10
Animal Shapes: 8/10
Conchiglie: 10/10
Spaghetti: 2/10
Fusilli: 10/10
Penne: 7/10
None of us were more surprised than I was with this result especially when we looked at the spaghetti.
The different types of pasta definitely made the Bolognese taste different and created different eating experiences. I think I would next be tempted to try the Bolognese with spaghetti verse tagliatelle and see if there is a reason why it was traditionally used over the former.
What has raised a massive question to which I have been unable to find the answer is why we use spaghetti if other shapes make Bolognese taste better even if it is texturally in your mouth.
This test, despite more unknown questions, did make us realise that different pasta would bring each dish alive depending on the ingredients used. We have found out what our favourite type here and allowed the boys to consider sensible which type we may use when creating different recipes in the future.
So, what do you think of our experiment? Have you ever tried different pasta with a standard sauce? What is your favourite type?
I would love it if someone copied this experiment and to then know what your findings are! Please let us know if you do!
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