All of Italy · meat · chunky
Best pasta for meat ragu
Any slow meat sauce with solids in it. It wants a shape with a cavity: a wide tube, a cup, or a broad ribbon.
- Region
- All of Italy
- Base
- Meat
- Texture
- Chunky
- Shapes that hold it
- 39
- Classic plates
- 36
What it asks of a shape
Meat ragu is a chunky meat-based sauce. It wants a tube, so the sauce rides inside as well as outside, a wide shape with mass, to stand up to a heavy sauce, a ribbon, with the flat surface a rich sauce needs, and a cup or a shell, to scoop the pieces. The ranking below scores every profiled shape on those traits, then the shape's own sauce notes break the ties.
About ragù
- Place of origin
- Italy
No article covers this exact sauce. On ragù in general:
In Italian cuisine, ragù is a meat sauce commonly served with pasta. An Italian gastronomic society, Accademia Italiana della Cucina, has documented several ragù recipes. The recipes' common characteristics are the presence of meat and the fact that all are sauces for pasta. The most typical is ragù alla bolognese. Other types include ragù alla napoletana, ragù di salsiccia, ragù alla barese, and ragù d'anatra.
39 shapes that hold it
Bigoli
Long strands · Veneto
Rough, thick, and heavy, bigoli takes sauces that a smooth spaghetti cannot: onion and anchovy, duck or rabbit ragu, sardines.
Cascatelli
Short shapes · United States
Designed for sauce: the trough holds it, the ruffle grips it, and the curve keeps it on the fork.
Lasagnette
Ribbons · All of Italy
Wide and ruffled, so it wants weight: ragu, mushroom cream, a sausage sauce, or the oven.
Lorighittas
Hand-formed · Sardinia
A braided ring with a lot of surface, traditionally served with a chicken or rooster ragu, or a simple tomato and pecorino.
Maccheroncini di Campofilone
Ribbons · Marche
So thin that they absorb whatever they are dressed with, and so fragile that the sauce must be added, not tossed.
Maccheroni al ferretto
Hand-formed · Calabria
Rough, chewy, and hollow, so they carry the heaviest southern sauces: pork ragu, goat ragu, 'nduja, a slow tomato with pecorino.
Occhi di lupo
Tubes · Campania
As mezze maniche: sauces with pieces, a ragu, sausage, the oven.
Pennoni
Tubes · All of Italy
A wide bore and long ridges, so it takes ragu, sausage, cream with mushrooms, and the oven.
Strozzapreti
Short shapes · Emilia-Romagna
Rough, twisted, and long enough to hold, so it takes a ragu, a sausage sauce, cream with mushrooms, and a pesto.
Tortiglioni
Tubes · Campania
Spiral ridges hold sauce the same way straight ones do, so it takes ragu, sausage, tomato with pieces, and baked dishes.
Candele
Tubes · Campania
Broken into uneven lengths, the wide smooth tube fills with a slow sauce and holds it: the Neapolitan Genovese, a ragu napoletano, a baked dish.
Cappellacci
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
A sweet pumpkin filling wants brown butter and sage, or a light meat ragu in the Ferrara style.
Cappelletti
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
In broth, like tortellini.
Fettuccine
Ribbons · Lazio
A ribbon has a broad flat face, so butter, cream, and cheese emulsions coat it evenly and a ragu rides on top.
Fileja
Hand-formed · Calabria
A rough hollow coil for the spicy sauces of Calabria: 'nduja and tomato, a pork ragu, a goat ragu.
Malloreddus
Hand-formed · Sardinia
A ridged chewy shell, so it holds a sausage and tomato sauce, a meat ragu, or a pecorino dressing.
Mostaccioli
Tubes · United States
As penne lisce: tomato, meat sauce, and the oven.
Pappardelle
Ribbons · Tuscany
The broadest face of any ribbon, so it carries the heaviest sauces: wild boar, hare, duck, a mushroom sauce with body, a slow beef ragu.
Rigatoni
Tubes · Lazio
The widest bore of the everyday tubes, so pieces of sausage, eggplant, or braised meat ride inside it.
Sagne 'ncannulate
Hand-formed · Puglia
A wide twisted strip holds a thick tomato in the spiral.
Sedani
Tubes · All of Italy
Ridged and curved, so it grips smooth and medium sauces: tomato, a light ragu, cream with vegetables.
Strascinati
Hand-formed · Basilicata
Rough, thick, and open, so they take a sausage ragu, fried crumbs and dried peppers, or a tomato with ricotta.
Tortelli
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
Brown butter and parmesan for almost all of them.
Troccoli
Long strands · Puglia
A thick rough square strand for tomato with cacioricotta, a seafood sauce with mussels, or a meat ragu.
Cavatelli
Hand-formed · Puglia
A dense chewy shell with a hollow, so it carries a ragu, broccoli or greens with garlic, a sausage sauce, and beans.
Garganelli
Tubes · Emilia-Romagna
Egg dough, ridges, and a bore, so they absorb and hold a rich sauce: ragu, cream with peas and ham, a butter and prosciutto dressing.
Manicotti
Tubes · United States
A stuffed tube under the oven.
Mezzi rigatoni
Tubes · All of Italy
As rigatoni, with a shorter tube that fills more easily: sausage ragu, amatriciana, a chunky vegetable sauce, the oven.
Tonnarelli
Long strands · Lazio
A porous square strand grips a cheese emulsion like nothing else, which is why Roman trattorias serve tonnarelli cacio e pepe.
Anelli
Pastina · Sicily
Small rings hold a little sauce in the centre.
Conchiglioni
Short shapes · All of Italy
A container for a filling.
Gnocchetti sardi
Short shapes · Sardinia
Ridged shells hold sausage, tomato, pesto, and cheese.
Orecchiette
Hand-formed · Puglia
A rough cup with a thick centre and a thin rim.
Pici
Long strands · Tuscany
Thick, rough, and chewy, pici needs a sauce with force: garlic and tomato, breadcrumbs fried in oil, a game ragu.
Tortelloni
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
A mild ricotta filling wants butter and sage, brown butter with parmesan, or a light tomato.
Fazzoletti
Sheets · Liguria
A wide thin sheet with maximum surface.
Gnocchi
Hand-formed · All of Italy
Soft, absorbent, and heavy, gnocchi need a sauce that is rich but not chunky: butter and sage, gorgonzola cream, a smooth tomato, pesto, a fine ragu.
Paccheri
Tubes · Campania
The huge bore traps whole pieces of squid, sausage, or braised meat and the flattened tube carries sauce on both faces.
Ziti
Tubes · Campania
A smooth tube holds sauce inside the bore rather than on the surface, so it wants a sauce with enough body to fill it: a slow ragu, the Neapolitan onion Genovese, a baked tomato and cheese.
Classic plates with meat ragu
Every dish in the shape profiles that names this sauce, with the shape it is made on.
- Candele spezzate al raguCandele
- Cappellacci di zucca al raguCappellacci
- Cappelletti romagnoli al raguCappelletti
- Cascatelli with raguCascatelli
- Cavatelli al raguCavatelli
- Curzul al ragù di castratoCurzoli
- Fazzoletti al ragu biancoFazzoletti
- Fettuccine al raguFettuccine
- Fileja con ragu di capraFileja
- Fusilli lunghi al raguFusilli lunghi
- Garganelli al raguGarganelli
- Gigli al ragu biancoCampanelle
- Lasagnette al raguLasagnette
- maccaronara al ragùmaccaronara
- Maccheroncini di Campofilone al raguMaccheroncini di Campofilone
- Maccheroni al ferretto al ragu di maialeMaccheroni al ferretto
- Mafaldine al raguMafaldine
- Mezze maniche al raguMezze maniche
- Occhi di lupo al raguOcchi di lupo
- Orecchiette al ragu di bracioleOrecchiette
- parmatieddi al ragùparmatieddi
- Pennoni al raguPennoni
- Perciatelli al raguPerciatelli
- Pici al ragu di cinghialePici
- Radiatori al raguRadiatori
- Sagne 'ncannulate al raguSagne 'ncannulate
- Sedani al raguSedani
- Spaghetti alla chitarra con ragu d'agnelloTonnarelli
- Strascinati al ragu lucanoStrascinati
- Strozzapreti al raguStrozzapreti
- Tagliatelle al raguTagliatelle
- Tagliolini al ragu di carne arrostoTagliolini
- Tortelloni al raguTortelloni
- Tortiglioni al raguTortiglioni
- Troccoli al raguTroccoli
- Vesuvio al raguVesuvio
Sources
- The ranking and the sauce notes are our editorial judgement, from the traits in each shape record. See the method.
- Ragù, Wikipedia (summary, ingredients, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata Q5571808.