Here's What You Can Make With Radiatori Pasta

It's hard not to love pasta since it's such a versatile food. You can make so many different kinds of delicious meals with pasta ranging from stuffed pasta and pasta bakes to stovetop pasta and even fried pasta. While you might have your own favorites or go-to classics that you like to eat often such as penne, angel hair, or ravioli, there are hundreds of types of pasta shapes to try. One of those that's certainly worth sampling is radiatori.

Radiatori pasta was inspired by the Bugatti car's radiator grill and is a relatively new shape of pasta. Many people believe the pasta shape came to be during the 1960s. They are short, chunky pieces with ruffled edges that look very similar to a radiator. The ruffles help the pasta to hold more sauce since it gives the pasta more surface area for the sauce to absorb into. The ruffles help trap and hold sauce, too (via The Pasta Project).

Since radiatori pasta holds sauces so well, it isn't uncommon for people to make dishes with their favorite sauces like Bolognese over radiatori pasta. Though there are not many traditional recipes for this specific pasta due to its relatively recent invention. Some prefer radiator pasta with thick tomato sauces or smooth and creamy sauces. Sometimes it is made with spinach and cheese. Others use it as a substitute for penne pasta, according to The Pasta Project. It's really up to you to incorporate it as you please.

Food52 mixes ramps, sun-dried tomatoes, and peas with radiatori pasta and adds nothing more than olive oil, herbs, and parmesan on top for a light and fresh dish. Coupon Clipping Cook makes a one-skillet meal using radiatori pasta by sautéing onion and garlic before adding Italian sausage to be browned. According to Cook Pad, others like using it in more common pasta dishes like stovetop mac and cheese.

There are tons of ways to use radiatori, so you really just have to decide what you love in a pasta dish and put this unusually shaped pasta to good use.