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I'm voting for D) Neither. Between my wife and I we have six kids. Besides those individual choices, I like a lot of sauce while Mary likes minimal sauce. Pasta and sauce at our house generally either means serving "family style" where everyone gets their own or, if I'm topping with sautéed shrimp or something else, I'll plate for each person under their own direction.

I'd say C, there's plenty of room for both styles, as seen from the comments above. Sometimes I enjoy tasting the pasta dressed minimally and sometimes, I want to have a bit more sauce and other food items with my pasta.

Wonder how Lidia would weigh in. I've seen her practice both methods on her show.

How about this: pasta is a main course if you make it Bittman's way - like a veg-heavy pasta salad with a protein (I use a ratio of about 1/3 pasta to 2/3 other ingredients), but it's a side if you do it Mario's way. Kinda like how bread-and-butter is a side, but a sandwich is a main. So, I suppose my answer is "C".

On a related note, I have been dabbling in whole-wheat pasta lately (was once a detractor), but unfortunately, I can only stand it - in the Bittman-esque "veg-heavy" type dishes - the texture is too weird for my taste to have it take center stage in a dish...unfortunate, since it would add nutrition to a Mario-style pasta meal.

In my humble opinion, both are right. There are too many variables involved- what type of pasta, what you are throwing into it and what course it is. Either way, done right, they are delicious!

i agree with alktraz. in some instances you would want your pasta sauced the way mario suggests, but there is certainly nothing wrong with making a meal out of it the way bittman suggests.

oh no!!! i think this is the first time i disagree with mark bittman! I am firmly planted in the batali camp on this one. i have noticed a trend lately with mark dwelling on the nutrition aspect of his food, and methinks he is spending too much time with the paltrow. maybe he has a crush and is trying to schmooze her? mark, kissing up to chicks rarely wins their affection. you're better off being confrontational dude, stop kissing up like that, it's embarrassing ;)

i am getting confused. isn't C and D basically the same thing? my vote is CD, or DC, which is to say C isn't more right than D and D isn't more right than C.

if you say C, that means there's more than one right answer (what i believe).

if you say D, that means the answer lies neither in the polarized extreme that are presented (that's not to say either one of them is actually polarizing, but we only have two options between A and B). thusly the result is that there is more than one right answer.

the real answer is, eat what tastes good to you.

I think both are right. I think in order to reconcile these two we have to accept that Italian and Italian-American are two separate, but related styles of cooking. One views pasta as something to be savored on its own and the other views it as a vehicle for delicious sauces. Neither are right or wrong in their own contexts. Batali cooks Italian food and Bittman doesn't really seem to cook Italian-American food per se, but its closer to that scene.

I mean just look at an Italian menu to see how pasta is viewed in that context: they call it "primi" as though its too light of a course to really be an entree. At Babbo I can usually eat a "secondi" course after having pasta. Try eating anything else after a bowl of penne with vodka sauce or some other classic pasta dish at an Italian-American restaurant. Also one can tell the difference in focus just by looking at the ways Italian-Americans refer to their food. While The Sopranos was sort of an exaggerated version of Italian-Americans, notice how when they gathered for Sunday Spaghetti and Meatballs it was almost universally referred to as Sunday Gravy (which essentially is what some Italian-Americans call meatballs and tomato sauce). They didn't need to mention the pasta because in the Italian-American context, it is often an afterthought.

The point is that when Italian-Americans came over to the US, their cooking style changed from classic old world techniques. That doesn't mean they are wrong as it appears Batali, in his overzealousness to teach Americans the Italian way to make things, wants us to believe. The Italian-American style is not the way it is not wrong or a betrayal of Italian techniques, rather an evolution. Just as you wouldn't oversauce a bowl of Spaghetti Carbonara, you wouldn't dream of not ladling on spoonfuls of sauce and big meatballs and sausage when having Spaghetti and Meatballs.

I think Batali is right. That's just because I want to be difficult.

HAR!

Batali is upholding the traditional way of pasta. In Italy, pasta is not made to be a mere carrier of sauce but something unto itself to be appreciated. Hence the shapes which with their different textures have different properties.

They are then "dressed" in sauce as a woman puts on her clothes.

It is to be hoped, in this traditional way of looking at things, that the woman carrys the clothes, that the clothes (or sauce in this context) are merely a heightening of what is underneath, for the most part. Not the clothes covering the woman to the point where her clothes are what one notices instead of her.

(I'd use men as an example here so as not to be accused of sexism but women are simply more traditional in this context.)

Baked pasta dishes sometimes are different - the heavier sauces that go into a lasagna blend together with the pasta to create something different, a different balance.

But if one is talking pastas sauced at the table (or in the kitchen just before eating) then Batali has it right (or perhaps I should say "correct") in the traditional sense.

But we are Americans, and we alter everything. Nothing remains exactly traditional here. We toy with things, we play with them to find new ways that suit us and that suits our tastes. Nothing wrong with this. So Bittman is right too. But he's not "correct". If that matters. It probably shouldn't matter, with food, what is correct, most of the time. But it is good to know what is correct just in case you get stuck on a game show or something.

Personally, I cook pasta like Bittman - load up a sauce with artichokes or brussel spouts or grilled fennel and eggplant, and the pasta itself becomes almost an afterthought. Now, homemade pasta might be overwhelmed by a strong sauce, and I wouldn't want a big bowl of processed supermarket tomato crap - but roasted winter squash with onions, broccoli, zucchini, tomato, dried cranberries, and goat cheese with a little bit of penne? It's like autumn in a bowl.

I love love love it! A pasta debate. I being 100% of italian heritage love this argument as among the italians there are different camps. I am a depends on "the pasta and sauce" camp. Some pasta tube shaped hollow will drink more sauce. Other pasta are shaped to be aside of other things and need less sauce. When I make a veggie sauce I pick the pasta to the sauce.
There is a reason for linguine and clams, orchiette and cauliflower, rigatoni and meatballs. The list could go on forever.
I am find Mario a purist as of recently. I gather that his sucess has given him a platform since he wants to bring back sexy to italian food. I only know this we are Americans and we eat what we want to eat and how we like it. My italian grandmothers would tell you to eat what was on the plate how it was prepared and that was it. Althought I fully undestand what Mario is saying and agree I have to also agree with Mark and say I understand that too.
As for Gwyneth, I am sure he has a good reason to travel Spain with her. I know as a child he lived there. I hope she eats some food while there. Nothing worse than doing a food series with someone who has 900 food restrictions (yes i am refering to some of you) I hope she is not one of those. If she is oh what a bunch of asshats pulled that rabbit out of their hat.

Actually, Dante is largely credited with creating the foundations of modern Italian, way back in the 14th century. The dialects do vary from region to region, but are used mostly in an informal vernacular context. The "language" spoken by italian americans is at best vestigial, the result of aculturization from integrating into american society, lack of education, and mostly just b.s. posturing.

For me it also depends on how strongly flavoured the sauce is - I'd use a much greater quantity of a light tomato sauce than I would pesto for example.

Also the quality of the pasta - if it's regular supermarket/cheap imported pasta it doesn't have much flavour to drown anyway - I use that pasta for when I fancy a ton of sauce and not too much starch, and save my De Cecco (which is about four times the price of Sainsbury's pasta here - I'm a student) for aglio-olio or something else where the taste of the pasta is much more important.

I guess it's different in England though - Italian-American food doesn't really exist here (except in the truly disgusting Frankie & Benny's chain) - most of the Italian food I've eaten here has been fairly similar to that I've eaten in Italy (although I suppose that might be an artifact of having an Italian mother so being a bit of an Italian food snob! I guess some of the "Italian" chains are less authentic but I don't tend to eat in them).

I totally agree with Mario and think Bittman's ideas are non-authentic Italian and cockeyed yuppy tastes. I've acquired most of my pasta cooking expertise from MB and truly feel he's got it right.

But WHAT IS AUTHENTIC ITALIAN!?!?! For many people that is Italian-American cuisine, which is no less authentic its just not traditional italian. A plate of spaghetti and meatballs better be drowning in sauce and meatballs or else to me that isn't authentic. If I am making something in the tuscan or northern Italian styles than it better be only kissed with sauce or else that isn't authentic either.

Geeeeeeeeze! All this who-ha about Italian vs Italian American! You'd think either one was homogeneous. Venetian pasta and saucing is different from Sicilian, Piedmontese differs from Neapolitan... and where your grandmother came from shapes the tastes of your perception of Italian American. Hell, even Chef Boy-Ar-Dee (aka Boiardi) from your childhood (or worse, Franco American) helped shape your opinon. Some of you act as if your sophistication sprang full-blown on your 21st birthday.
Instead, isn't it enough to acknowledge that Batali has a bias toward AUTHENTIC Italian -- and more specifically, probably, Tuscan. Perhaps tempered by the Bastianich Istrian influences (which are sometimes in history Croatian.) And unless I miss my guess Mark Bittman's grandmother's pasta probably had its roots in kugel. And he adjusts his recipes to the (generic) American palate and to American obsession with increasing fiber and protein and reducing fats and carbs.
Ultimately, there is no right or wrong way. It just has to taste good. If not, the insinkerator doesn't really care what it tastes like.