Creamette Pasta Rings, 7 oz

Creamette has been making pasta in America since 1912, starting out in Minneapolis and running long enough that plenty of families have never bought another brand. These are the Rings — small circles in the anellini style, the shape Italian cooks reach for when a pasta needs to sit on a spoon rather than wind around a fork.

The 7 oz box is sized for the kind of cooking rings are good at. They are a soup pasta first: drop them into chicken broth, minestrone or a tomato base and they hold their shape while they cook. They are also the shape parents go to for young children, partly because a ring is easy to eat and partly because a homemade version of canned ring pasta in tomato sauce starts right here. Beyond soup, they turn up cold in pasta salad and baked into a casserole, which is how anelletti are handled in Sicily.