Sam wrote:

> we ate yesterday at an 'italian' resturant ordering spaghetti
> bolognese.
>
> the plate was of macaroni spirals mixed about in bolognese sauce.
>
> it did not resemble my preconceptional idea that spaghetti bolognese
> is a dish of cooked spaghetti or other long thin pasta with bologese
> sauce neatly poured on the top.
>
> the waiter and the owners said that macaroni is the same as spagetti.
> as i am not italian i felt i wasnt in a position to argue with people
> who have been eating these dishes since their childhood.
>
> Maybe some here could enlighten me, can you use macaroni spirals and
> still call it spaghetti bologese? would you serve it that way in your
> resturant?

I wouldn't call it SPAGHETTI Bolognese, but it actually sounds like what you
got might have been better than what you thought you would get. The shape of
the pasta isn't completely inconsequential; some pastas hold sauce better
than others, and spaghetti isn't particularly good at holding sauce.

The issue of tossing the pasta with the sauce has been discussed here
before. The consensus was that saucing and tossing results in a dish with
better flavor, and the (mostly American) practice of simply pouring the
sauce on top of the pasta is an indication of laziness, and results in the
sauce not soaking into the pasta the way it should.

Bob