"notbob" > wrote in message
...
> On 2013-10-18, Dave Smith > wrote:
>
>> Most of them are made with the same dough. They put it into the same
>> machines and the size and shape determine what they are called.
>
> It's all about Italians hyping their own cuisine. Perhaps one
> actually grasps a sauce marginally better than onother, but most of it
> is bull. Spaghetti vs angel hair? Macaroni vs shell? You can alias
> it however you like, it's still all starch filler.

I do prefer some shapes over others for certain things. Macaroni and cheese
fine because the cheese sauce makes it sort of sticky. But to eat plain
macaroni? Hard to pick up in a spoon or on a fork. I also dislike the tiny
shapes in a pasta salad. I prefer big shapes for that. And I prefer the
bigger shapes for heavier sauces.

My MIL and her family made something for Christmas that they pronounced as
"Eye-ah Oy!" Perhaps they were trying to say Aioli. Not sure but what they
made didn't quite seem like that either. It was just angel hair pasta with
canned shrimp, lots of garlic and some oil. Oddly enough, most of them
didn't even use olive oil. They had a tendency to use something like
Wesson, perhaps because it was cheaper. I never saw any olive oil in my
MIL's house unless I put it there. I did not care for this dish at all and
neither did my one SIL. We both took turns making it after my MIL became
ill. The men in the family all insisted that it was good and made properly.
But we gals felt that it needed something else. Eventually when I made it,
I gave it a richer taste by adding a little chicken broth, parsley, butter
and olive oil. I will use angel hair if I happen to remember to buy it.
Otherwise I just use spaghetti. No complaints from husband but... I only
make it once a year. There is so much garlic in there it could be lethal!
And he prefers to eat it cold after it has sat all night in the garlicky oil
and soaked it all up. Oh, I add a lot more shrimp to mine too. MIL only
put one small can in there to a whole package of pasta.