These days, what you serve your pasta in is almost as important as the pasta you put in your saucepan. Take a look at Instagram and Stories, especially our friends over at Pasta Evangelists,  and people are parading delicious looking pasta on equally stunning dishes. Not that we're driven by such trends, of course, but using attractive plates does make the eating experience all the more agreeable. 

Parading pasta


It's most definitely not a case of one size fits all and what better excuse is there to splash out on a variety of plates? The good news is that these bowls are versatile and can be used for chunky soups and stews or even salads. In addition, you can always mix in some plain white dishes if you need to boost numbers to use alongside patterned ones.

Ideal pasta bowls


Researching the subject, pasta bowls are on average 23 cm diameter and on the shallow side, all of which offer the best sauce/pasta ratio.  We have chosen both shallow and deeper bowls as for spaghetti or linguini, we prefer a deeper bowl, which cuts down on the sauce flying in all directions while you're tucking in. Sad but true.

Beauty over function


In the main, the bowls we have chosen are dishwasher proof and can be put in the microwave but sometimes beauty trumps function. If you have to forego the luxury of bunging the bowls in the dishwasher, then some of our choices are more than worth it. See the pretty radicchio bowls from Liberty. or Divertimenti's pumpkin bowl. We like Royal Doulton's set in four shades from John Lewis but why, oh why, is one of the shades lilac? Since when did food look good on a purple plate? 

Comfort food


A warming pasta dish is the perfect meal as the nights start to draw in and what better way to celebrate Italy's finest export than by serving it in a carefully chosen bowl?  Comfort food doesn't come much better than this. And by the way, just in case you thought we couldn't count, we kept on finding even lovelier dishes, hence there being thirty.

Updated April 2024