The grocery store is packed with pasta shapes. Before you reach for a box, learn about what makes each shape different and which recipes work best with your go-to noodle.

There’s a reason making pasta is so much fun—there are tons of pasta shapes to choose from! Whatever kind of sauce you’re in the mood for, like pesto, cream, marinara or meat sauce, there’s a noodle shape that suits it perfectly. You can take it one step further and choose between fresh or dry pasta too.

Long, smooth noodles prefer lighter sauces or a simple coating of olive oil and herbs. Thick, ribbon-like noodles or ridged pasta can hold more weight, and they keep the sauce on your noodles instead of at the bottom of the bowl. Tubular pasta is ideal for baked dishes like casseroles. Because the shapes, sizes and thickness varies so much, each type of pasta will have different cook times. Check the directions on your pasta box for perfectly al dente noodles.

If you’re using a pasta maker to shape your homemade pasta dough into noodles, tubes or shells, here’s a whole list of fun shapes to try. One ball of dough can make dozens of different dishes!

Taste of Home