Happy International Pasta Day!

Most of us will take a “use whatever is in the cupboard” approach when matching our pasta shapes with sauce. But pasta comes in over 600 different shapes and sizes, and each one has a perfect sauce pairing! In fact, according to the experts, the most famous pasta pairing - spaghetti bolognese - shouldn’t exist. The meat-based sauce is actually a ragu alla bolognese and is meant to be paired with gnocchi, tortellini or tagliatelle.

Our in-house pasta expert, Emma Dimento says that when choosing dried pasta, the trick is to look for a shape that has lots of little ridges on the surface. These will act as tiny crevices for your flavoursome sauce to cling to.

Emma is a product developer in our Macro food brand team, as well as a trained chef and pasta lover! Her favourite pasta dish is Frutti di Mare, which translates to 'fruit of the sea' in Italian. It consists of spaghetti or linguine in a tomato & chilli sauce made with fresh seafood such as mussels, prawns, clams & squid. The long thin pasta pairs perfectly with the seafood sauce because it contains a thin sauce with larger prices of seafood that you can pick up with your fork, before twirling to wrap around in spaghetti for a taste of all the flavours.

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For customers who are looking to enjoy restaurant quality pasta at home, we recently launched premium pasta options in some of our stores with brands such as Lello, Gentile and Pasta Ligouri. And for our customers wishing to take advantage of great value offers we also have our seasonal Prices Dropped for Spring program! 

For just $1, you can get a 500g packet of any of the below Woolworths brand pasta. 

  • Spirals

  • Large pasta shells 

  • Penne Rigate 

  • Spaghetti 

  • Macaroni

  • Fettuccine

  • Long angel hair 

Woolworths chef

We’ve created a list of the perfect pasta matches for when you want to host the most authentic Italian dinner party, or just want to brush up on your culinary knowledge. 

Seafood sauces 

Long, thin pasta - Angel hair, spaghetti 

Rich, meaty sauces

Long ribbon pasta - tagliatelle, pappardelle, fettuccine

Cream or meat sauces

‘Shell shaped’ pasta - known as conchiglie and lumache 


Light, smooth sauces - pesto 

Twist pasta - fusilli and caserecce

Hearty vegetable sauces, ragu or baked cheese dishes

‘Tube shaped’ pasta - penne, rigatoni, macaroni

Soups, stews or in pasta salads


Small pasta - farfalle, orzo and fregola