For a long time, I’ve been buying linguine, thinking it was my favorite pasta shape. But yesterday, as the supermarket was out of linguine, I picked up spaghettini instead, and was quite pleased by the perfectly al dente results. Logically, I realized, round pastas (like spaghettini or spaghetti) are more likely to turn out al dente than flattened linguine-esque shapes; the center of a round pasta is equidistant from each boiled edge, avoiding linguine’s frequent problem of overcooked far (oblong) edges.

Time to stock up on spaghetti, then. And on penne, which also happens to be a very fine pasta shape.