The internet has spoken: tagliatelle is the best pasta—at least according to Facebook group “Irreverent Italian Memes” (IIM), and not without heated objection.
In a month-long series of posts dubbed the “IIM Pasta Challenge,” the group called upon its 275,000-plus followers to determine, via a single-elimination tournament, the best of 16 types of pasta. For each pair that faced off, users cast their votes with Facebook reaction emojis.
The pre-finals bracket, as of May 25. (Photo from Irreverent Italian Memes)Comment sections ran wild with passionate declarations. When spaghetti and tagliatelle emerged as finalists, users decried the absence of a short pasta representative.
“Embarrassment, shame, dishonor. Choke with your inconvenient and inefficient long pasta. #ImWithFusilli,” wrote Cristiano Vu.
Even after tagliatelle was announced as the winner on June 4, the public remained divided.
“You might eat them twice a year,” Lorenzo Paci wrote, declaring the trusty and versatile spaghetti the “true moral winner.”
Chiara Baschieri, however, sided with the champion. “In a precarious Italy governed by uncertainty, I need something that represents solidity, tradition, constancy. [Only] tagliatelle, the queen of pasta, can give me all of this.”
