You probably don’t have the best and worst pasta shapes for mac and cheese in mind. We will consider the opinions of food business experts as we analyze the best pasta shapes for savory macaroni and cheese.
Like pizza, grilled cheese, chicken tenders, and mac and cheese, they are some of the most ubiquitous foods in the average American home. Kids love it, and some adults don’t shy away from indulging occasionally. However, a wrong choice of pasta shape may spell disaster during the preparation of mac and cheese.
Erin Clarke, a recipe developer with 11 Mac and food author, says of pasta shapes, “When choosing pasta, the goal is to pick a shape that works with the cheese sauce, not against it.” So, let’s look at pasta shapes that never go wrong and those to avoid.
The Five Pasta Shapes for Mac and Cheese
It is essential to point out that people may have personal preferences for pasta shapes. Also, no one appropriate pasta shape goes perfectly well with mac and cheese. Several suitable shapes for that dish are available on the market, and the quality of the eventual meal is also a function of individual culinary skills.
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Penne Rignate
Franco Console, the executive chef at Larks Home Kitchen Cuisine Restaurant, suggests that penne rigate is a great pasta shape for making mac and cheese.
Thanks to the tubular shape and ridged exterior of the penne rigate, Console believes it will do well for easy conveyance and saturation of cheese sauce in the mac and cheese dish.
Mezzi Rigatoni
Chef Console also had something to say about mezzi rigatoni. This pasta shape requires a relatively shorter cooking time and easily absorbs the sauce’s cheesy goodness.
Despite being widely underappreciated, Console strongly recommends this pasta shape for macaroni and cheese. He said, “The tubes absorb the sauce beautifully.”
Macaroni
By far the most popular pasta shape for making mac and cheese, the reason for that dish’s name is a no-brainer. Cooked macaroni is small enough to allow a mouthful and its curved shape fosters sauce retention.
The interlocking effect of the cooked macaroni in mac and cheese makes the creaminess even more alluring. If you crave baked mac and cheese, macaroni has you covered.
Shells
Pasta shells are great for eating with a fork in mac and cheese dishes. Clarke says eating mac and cheese prepared with them makes her feel nostalgic. The successful writer claims to have been raised on Velveeta Shells and Cheese.
Shell pastas are delicious because they exhibit excellent sauce retention, trapping the cheese sauce in the hollow cups. Similarly, shell pasta confers a nice, creamy texture when used in baking mac and cheese.
Cavatappi
If you want your pasta to retain some sturdiness in baked mac and cheese, use cavatappi. This pasta needs more cheese sauce to prepare, meaning more cheesy goodness in the dish.
Cavatappi is one of the few kinds of pasta that keeps together after a long cooking time. Try it today, and you’ll see that it is one of the best choices for your pantry.
Three Worst Pasta Shapes for Mac and Cheese
We have unveiled the five best kinds of pasta for preparing plain or baked mac and cheese. Now, we are warning you about pasta variants to avoid for those two dishes.
Angel Hair
This pasta shape, called capellini, features very thin strands and is popular among chefs who specialize in Asian dishes. You can reserve your angel hair pasta for some Chicken soup seca, but never for mac and cheese.
Chef Console explains that angel hair would be terrible in mac and cheese. The long strands would form clumps and perform poorly in absorbing the sauce.
Spaghetti
Clarke quips that spaghetti falls apart way too easily to be used in mac and cheese preparation.
In addition, even if you manage to reduce the cooking time to retain the pasta’s long structure, she points out that the cheesy sauce does not cling too well to the strands.
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Linguine
Linguine would make a great spicy shrimp pasta dish but perform poorly as the pasta base for mac and cheese.
According to Console, the universal rule is, “Anything smooth and long, such as linguine, isn’t ideal. You want something with grooves and tubes.”
So, there you have it: the best and worst pasta shapes for mac and cheese. Remember, the cooking time is an important metric to watch even when using the best pasta for your mac and cheese preparation.
