Here's Why Macaroni & Cheese Shapes Taste Better Than Regular Noodles (2024)

FAQs

Here's Why Macaroni & Cheese Shapes Taste Better Than Regular Noodles? ›

They have more texture.

Many, many people claim that shapes just taste better than the standard tube noodles (although some speculate it's because of the higher cheese sauce-to-noodle ratio). And this particular shape has somewhat of a cult following. It may sound silly, but Spongebob Squarepants has some serious fans, even in his pasta form.

Unlike longer pastas which break down quickly in surplus liquid and heat, smaller pasta shapes keep their shape. Smaller shapes also soak up the broth as they cook, and impart starch back into the cooking liquid while they do, which gives the dish a thicker consistency and more delectable bites.

These Three Pastas Are Your Best Bet

This is because dried pasta is dependable and holds its structure inherently better than fresh pasta does, which is important when making such a thick and heavy cheese sauce. As far as shapes go, lumache, elbow, and cavatappi are the best pastas to make macaroni and cheese with.

The curved shape is created by different speeds of extrusion on opposite sides of the pasta tube as it comes out of the machine.

SHAPE: Elbow macaroni, with its short, semicircular shape, is one of the most common tube pasta shapes. SERVED: Macaroni pairs well with practically any type of sauce, baked recipes, soups, salads or stir-fry dishes. It's typically used in dishes like macaroni and cheese dishes but also in pasta salads.

Unsurprisingly, macaroni is most famous for being the pasta used in the American dish “macaroni cheese” or “macaroni and cheese”, in which it is combined with grated cheese and a roux sauce. Because of its small size, macaroni is also a good choice for soups, where it pairs well with ingredients such as chickpeas.

A significant body of research demonstrates the existence of taste-shape correspondences. People associate tastes and visual shapes non-randomly. For example, round shapes are associated with sweet taste, while angular shapes are associated with sour and bitter tastes.

The basic logic being that every shape of pasta holds the sauce in a different way. An oily, creamy, thin sauce sticks better to long pasta, whereas a short pasta shape like a tube or a shell is more suited to a sauce where the small chunks of meat or vegetables can nestle within.

Serve tube pasta shapes such as penne, rigatoni, macaroni and paccheri with hearty vegetable sauces, or baked cheese dishes. Also good with Bolognese or ragu. Serve mini pasta shapes such as orzo, fregola, canestrini and stelline in soups and stews or as pasta salads.

Can you mix pasta shapes for mac and cheese? ›

Some pastas certainly aren't designed to mix. It's not worth the trouble to get a forkful of both thin angel hair pasta and mini macaroni, for example. According to Garten, as long as you mix pasta by length—short pasta with short pasta and long pasta with long pasta—the end result works.

“I think cavatappi is the best shape for mac and cheese, whether stovetop or baked,” said Sydney Wilcox, a chef and culinary instructor. “It is like a long, curly elbow. The shape has twists and turns, so it catches all the cheese. But [it's a bigger] pasta than an elbow, so there is more chew.”

Smooth, short pasta cuts like macaroni and ziti feature the flavor of thinner cheese sauces and pestos better. When it comes to sauce and toppings, there's a flavorful match for each pasta shape. The shape of the pasta directly compliments the sauce, carrying more flavor to your mouth and leaving less in the bowl.

“Macaroni cheese is an Anglo-Saxon twist of a typical Italian dish made with pasta and cheese which was exported to the UK and US by Italian emigrants in the 18th century and then in between the two world wars.

The earliest pasta shape was a simple sheet, which was treated more like bread dough. It probably didn't have the toothsome quality – known as “al dente” – associated with Italian pasta today, and would have been similar to unleavened matzo bread with sauce on it.

They have more texture.

I've always been drawn to the chew factor that comes with mac and cheese shapes. Unlike the original noodles, which can turn into a mushy mess once their cooked, shapes tend to hold their rigid structure.

Which mac & cheese noodle shape reigns supreme? 1) Tubes 2) Shells 3) Spirals 4) Characters.

Big changes, including meltier cheese and more flavorful patties, are coming to McDonald's burgers nationwide. In 2023, the fast food chain announced it would be making changes to its classic hamburger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger, McDouble burger and Big Mac sandwiches.