know your pasta!

With Italian food fast becoming popular across the globe after Chinese food, pasta, which is synonymous with this cuisine, has also become a mealtime favourite in Indian homes. There are over 500 types of pasta available that can be served in different sauces to make up myriad dishes. So if you're bored of penne or spaghetti and are looking for some variety in your pasta, here are some that you can find on your supermarket shelves.

Conchiglie
This kind of pasta is popularly known as seashell- or shell-shaped pasta.

Maccheroni
It is most popularly known as elbow or macaroni and is available in the form of narrow tubes. They are well suited to soups and salads.

Farfalle
This is similar to spaghetti, in the sense that it is a noodle kind of pasta, but much thicker and with a hollow centre.

Fusilli
This is long, thick, corkscrew-shaped pasta or, ideally speaking, spiral pasta that is normally used in casseroles and salads.

Cavatappi
It is a short S-shaped pasta tube that looks like a small corkscrew. Its slender, spiral shape makes it suitable for serving with sauces, salads and casseroles.

Farfalle
Commonly known as bow-tie pasta, it is derived from the Italian word 'farafalla', which means 'butterfly'. This can be used in casseroles and meat sauce pastas.

Rigatoni
Rigatoni is a form of long, hollow tube-shaped pasta of varying lengths and diameters. It is larger than penne and sometimes slightly curved, but not as curved as elbow macaroni.