How to Pick the Best Pasta Shape for Your Pasta Salads

Pasta shapes
Photo by Heather Gill on Unsplash

The shape and size of pasta you’re using can make or break certain pasta dishes, and that’s certainly the case with pasta salad. Picking pasta of the wrong shape is one of the biggest mistakes you can possibly make, and these three tips will help you make the right choice.

Avoid Fresh Pasta

Fresh pasta may be the perfect choice for a lot of warm pasta dishes, but pasta salad isn’t one of them. When it comes to making this salad, fresh pasta is best avoided because it doesn’t hold up as well as dried one when combined with dressing and other ingredients.

Avoid Long Pastas

Pasta salad can technically be made with long pasta varieties, but they’re best avoided. The tricky thing about long pasta shapes, such as linguine and spaghetti, is that it’s much more difficult to serve them to a group of people.

Stick to Short Varieties

By this point, you probably figured out that short pasta varieties are your best bet when it comes to pasta salad. Fusilli, gnocchi, farfalle, and penne are some of the most delicious choices because their tiny nooks and crannies do a great job trapping dressing and other ingredients.