Homemade Pasta Shapes: Doughs, Techniques & Pairings

Making homemade pasta can feel overwhelming! Between the different doughs, shapes, and techniques, it’s not always clear where to start. This guide breaks down everything you need to know, from mastering pasta dough to a round-up of recipes for classic shapes like fettuccine, cavatelli, and gnocchi.

Unlike most pasta guides that focus on a single recipe, this is a comprehensive, technique-driven resource designed to help you understand why each method works, so you can confidently make a wide range of pasta at home.

After years of running pasta workshops, testing a pasta cookbook, and developing my own recipes, I’m sharing all of my secrets with you!

Perfecting the Dough

What do we mean when we say we want to make great pasta dough? Depending on the type of dough, this could mean different things.

Fresh fettuccine, for example, is often silky, soft and smooth with a slight elastic quality. Ricotta gnocchi melts in your mouth, and should never be tough or chunky. Malloreddus has a really chewy, satisfying bite to it.

While each individual pasta shape has a rich history and unique textural profile, many shapes use the same base dough and technique.

Egg Dough

Fettuccine, pappardelle, farfalle, garganelli, and ravioli are all examples of pasta shapes using eggs.

These also tend to be rolled out via a pasta maker or rolling pin into flattened sheets before cutting into individual shapes. Traditionally, these originated from Northern and some areas of Central Italy.

🧑🏽‍🍳 Recipe Suggestions: Homemade Pasta with a Kitchenaid and Egg Yolk Ravioli

Semolina Dough

Semolina/hard durum wheat dough: Orecchiette, malloreddus, and cavatelli are all examples of pasta shapes made with semolina/durum wheat flour.

Doughs need to be kneaded for at least 10 minutes to form enough gluten and yield a toothsome result. These doughs originated from Southern and some areas of Central Italy.

🧑🏽‍🍳 Recipe Suggestion: Semolina Pasta Dough

Potato/Ricotta Gnocchi Dough

Potato/ricotta gnocchi dough: Potato and ricotta gnocchis just barely come together with a bit of flour, with the potato/ricotta as the main star of the show. Sometimes, the dough is made with interesting ingredients such as sweet potato or goat cheese.

🧑🏽‍🍳 Recipe Suggestions: Homemade Potato Gnocchi and Ricotta Gnocchi

There are many other pasta shapes that don’t follow the categorization above. Some fall in between, and include both egg yolks and semolina, while others are much more batter-like. In this guide, I will be focused most heavily on the most popular pasta shapes for egg and semolina doughs.

Pasta Shapes: From Tagliatelle to Malloreddus

Now that you’ve prepped the dough, you’re ready to move on to making the individual shapes. For each shape, I’ve included a bit of information on the history, a brief technique, and suggested pairings.

There are hundreds of different pasta shapes, so we’ll be covering the most popular ones!

Beginner Shapes

Cavatelli

Small, hot-dog shaped pieces of pasta, sometimes with a ridged texture from a gnocchi board.

Cavatelli is usually made with semolina flour and water (semolina pasta dough), though the term can also be used more generally to describe any pasta drawn across a gnocchi board and indented. In some regions, you can find ricotta and squash varieties.

Basic Steps: Make a semolina pasta dough. Roll dough into a ½-inch rope, then slice into ¾-inch pieces. Drag a knife across each piece to curl it over into hot dog shape. Or, create a ridged texture by rolling the pieces over a gnocchi board, strainer, or cheese grater.

Fettuccine / Tagliatelle

Classic ribbons made from egg dough

get the recipe ↓

Pappardelle

Wide ribbons made from egg dough

get the recipe ↓

Pici

Long, thick, and rustic spaghetti-like strands with a pleasant chew

get the recipe ↓

Ricotta Gnocchi

Delicate, melt-in-your-mouth pillows made from ricotta, flour, and eggs.

get the recipe ↓

Intermediate Shapes

Cecamariti

Small pieces of raised (yeasted) bread dough shaped into pasta

get the recipe ↓

Farfalle

butterfly shaped pasta made from egg dough

get the recipe ↓

Malloreddus

Small, ridged pasta similar to cavatelli but made with saffron and originating in Sardinia

get the recipe ↓

Ravioli

Classic circular or square-shaped stuffed pasta

get the recipe ↓

Potato Gnocchi

get the recipe ↓

Expert Shapes

Agnolotti

Small, pinched pouches of dough stuffed with delicious fillings.

get the recipe ↓

Ciciones

Small, chewy, chickpea-like dumplings with saffron

get the recipe ↓

Orecchiette

A pasta shape meaning “little ears”, these are textured from dragging a knife against small pieces of dough then inverting on your thumb.

get the recipe ↓

Paccheri

Tubular pasta, sometimes stuffed with cheeses or meats.

get the recipe ↓

How to Store Pasta

Okay, so you’ve learned how to knead, roll and shape your pasta. Often times, you’ll make a larger batch of pasta that’s not possible to eat in one sitting, so it’s helpful to understand how best to store any extras.

Check out my guide on how to storing fresh pasta for more details!

Tips on Pairing Sauces with Pasta

1. Butter and cream sauces tend to go well with egg pasta doughs, such as tagliatelle or stuffed pastas.
2. Heavier sauces, like meat sauces and ragus, tend to stand up well to the chewy, bitey durum wheat doughs.
3. Shapes with lots of nooks and crannies are great for holding sauces, sausages, or vegetables — for example, orecchiette pair well with sausage or even peas because the pasta can ‘hold’ the other ingredients.
4. But, there are always exceptions. Many ravioli dishes are served with tomato sauce. Tagliatelle and pappardelle are often served with meaty ragus. Some of the pairings are based on tradition, while others are based on pairing an ideal texture with an ideal sauce.
5. I recommend experimenting while keeping in mind the traditions and asking yourself the question, “Why did they pair it this way? Did this pasta hold up better to this sauce?”

Sauce Ideas

I created the following flavor matrix below as a means of helping you pick a delicious sauce based on what you had in your pantry.

For additional information on pairings, see my article on how to cook great pasta.

References

1. American Sfoglino (by Evan Funke)
2. Mastering Pasta (by Marc Vetri)
3. Pasta Dough 101 (by Pasta Social Club)
4. Pasta by Hand (by Jenn Louis)
5. All Purpose Fresh Pasta Dough + some science (by Serious Eats)
6. Italian Pasta Guide (by Eataly)
7. Durum Wheat vs. Soft Wheat Flour
8. The Encyclopedia of Pasta