Pasta shapes make for a very interesting topic. Speaking of little beady things, we tried fregula pasta from Sardinia and didn't much care for it: too many little bits and too chewy. On the other hand we love orzo, which looks like rice grains, but we use this as an integral part of the sauce, which it thickens beautifully as it releases its starch. Very nice in a sauce with peas and bacon. I don't like pasta shapes that vary in thickness as I don't like chewy middles. The biggest culprit is trofie, which I don't buy, but there are others. I like big tubes such as pennone rigate, which I use in my arrabbiata dishes. I like orecchiette for a pasta bake and for the traditional Puglian dish with chilli and wilted greens. I don't get on with bucatini, so my Amatriciana is served up with spaghetti. Heresy! We never have fusilli for that thick middle reason. Whatever we have it must be bronze die pasta. I suppose spaghetti is our most-used overall. It's a religion in our house that pasta is always eaten from a bowl, that the sauce is always mixed with the pasta, never just dumped on top, and is eaten with a fork only with much slurping. There's no such thing as spaghetti bolognese in Italy (except on tourist menus) but I've failed miserably to wean my family off it, though I've stopped drowning it with minced garlic and I don't allow dried basil to come within a mile of the house.