Former Top Chef contestant and chef Fabio Viviani shares with Food52 the five pastas that are always in his pantry—and should be in yours, too.

When Fabio Viviani visited our offices this past winter, he had a thing or two to say about cilantro.

“I HATE cilantro,” he told us in his thick Italian accent before launching into a story about having to move after he discovered he had purchased a home adjacent to a cilantro farm. His animated condemnation of the offending herb convinced us—if just for a moment—that we should never touch the stuff again. When I called Fabio a few weeks ago to ask his thoughts about pasta, he was just as frank about the things he hates (“Some people think you’ve gotta soak your pasta under cold water after you cook it, but that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!”) and passionate about the things he loves—like the five types of pasta that are always in his pantry:

 

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