#conchiglie

Conchiglie - Temporary Score: 7.5

Description: seashells! only made of pasta. i don't advise cooking seashells made of seashell. they will be too crunchy. i got into a lot of arguments about what size is "regular" and what size earns an "-etti" or "-oni" appendix, and whether the presence of furrows ("rigate") is required or not... if you want to arugue with me about the pastashells, i think you're missing an opportunity to do other fun things with your life, but i rather like arguing, so i'm okay on my end.

First Take Points: 4 - oh, i'm just tickled with myself. this is one of a pair of seafood soups/stews that i used nautical pasta shapes for. it made me very happy at the time, and reflecting upon it is making me happy again. for conchiglie, i did a riff on a Portuguese fish stew (pic on top is mine!). cubes of whitefish (cod, in this case), in a tomato broth heavey on the smoked paprika (there were other things in there, but i'm not doing a whole recipe recap here). as one would imagine, large conchiglie are very good at being little bowls full of fish and broth and herbs. does the fact that they are shell-shaped make the fish stew taste better? YES IT DOES.

Remix Bonus Points: 2 - you could almost do a whole separate ranking just on shells of different sizes, but since these fairly large ones are the specific ones i used, this is what i'll consider for Remix points (tiny shells in a shells n cheese application would be pretty dope tho) - and honestly, if you're not going to put these in a soup, then what are you even doing with them (hint, go down to the Alternative Uses section to answer this)?

Amusement Points: 2.5 - i'm really torn here. one the one hand: shells! cute! many size options! many cute! on the other hand: shells! just... shells! not even conch shells or nautilus shells, just... shells.

Annoyance Deductions: -1 - they were fine and fun once they got into the soup, but until then they are a very annoying bag of large dried pasta. this is not a forgiving pasta size. if you drop it a few times, it becomes much easier to store in your pantry (also, it is no longer conchiglie shaped).