Curious pasta question - seeking advice

[GJWhite]

So my sister was living in Rome the past few months. She came back with a pasta called mezzani which is essentially a supersized bucatini.

I was wondering what you suggest I do with it. The obvious recipe would be an amatriciana deal with guanciale and the other trimmings, but I was wondering if any of you had any tubular departures from the usual.

[todao]

How about combining the Mezzani with some green vegetables, seafood (either salmon or tuna) and some capers along with typical Italian herbs, onions and a red sauce? Red wine in the sauce is, of course, a necessity.
Any recipe calling for Ziti style pasta should handle Mezzani pretty well as long as the sauce is rich enough to stick with the pasta.
Or perhaps a full bodied white sauce (vis-à-vi Alfredo) with broccoli flowerets, chicken, garlic and grated parmessan or Asiago cheese.

[bob96]

Mezzani, like candele and paccheri--also both large tubular cuts--are, as far as my experience goes, reserved for festive dishes and/or Sunday ragus, and common in Neapolitan cooking. They can be broken in two before cooking, since they are unwieldy, and are often used in baked dishes, like larger ziti. I've also seen this general style of pasta served with seafood and fish sauces, too. The only real guideline would be for a strong or rich sauce to match the scale of the pasta.