By: Addie Strack and Sophie Johnson
We both love pasta, and we decided to try some different sauces and noodle shapes to find the best combination. We tried pesto sauce with macaroni shaped noodles, Alfredo sauce with penne shaped noodles, and tomato sauce with spaghetti noodles. We also added different toppings to each dish like mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and more. In this article we will review each dish, and give it a rating out of five.
Our first combination that we tried was pesto and macaroni noodles. We decided we wanted to try to make our own pesto sauce to try to make it taste even better (the pesto recipe will be linked at the bottom of our article). We also added some mozzarella cheese and cherry tomatoes to top off the dish. We both really enjoyed this dish, but agreed that the shape of the noodle could’ve been different. We thought maybe using bow tie pasta would be better, and agreed to try that next time. Besides the shape of the pasta, we thought this dish was amazing. It was our favorite dish overall, and the homemade pesto made a big difference. The dish tasted fresher, and it was also fun to make the pesto. We would rate this dish a 5/5, and would definitely make it again.
The next pasta combination that we tested out was Alfredo sauce and the shape was penne pasta. Out of all the shapes of pasta that we tried, this one was our second favorite. We agree that penne is the second best because the sauce is more absorbed in the noodle because of the shape of the noodle. The hole in the middle of the noodle allows for sauce to be trapped and makes the dish extra flavorful. The sauce in this combination (Rao’s Homemade) was delicious and we would rate it a 4.5/5. It was extra creamy and the brand we used was extra cheesy and rich which added a lot of additional flavor to the meal. Overall, this dish was really good, especially the sauce and we would rate it a 4.5/5. We would definitely recommend this recipe and would make this dish again.
The last combination of pasta shapes and sauces that we tried was spaghetti with red tomato sauce. This was our least favorite dish out of the three that we cooked, but it was still very delicious and flavorful. There was nothing wrong with this recipe but we both agree that tomato sauce is just not one of our favorites. One factor that could make this dish more enjoyable is if there was a side like meatballs or something that would add more flavor to the meal in the end. Overall, we would rate the spaghetti with red tomato sauce combination a 3/5. It was good, but not the best thing we’ve tasted, and it definitely did not come close to how good both the pesto macaroni and penne Alfredo pasta combinations were.
All of these dishes were super fun to make. We loved being able to test different combinations and toppings, and we have so many different pastas that we want to try. We want to try making our own Alfredo and tomato sauce since the homemade pesto was so good, and we also want to try making a pasta salad. Our one big recommendation after making all of these dishes is to make your sauce homemade. We think that the biggest difference that set the pesto ahead was the fact that it was homemade, and we would love to try more homemade sauces.
Pesto recipe:
Plaid Line + PRIZM + Scottie News 