In My Humble Opinion Part 1

If I were to describe perhaps my favorite food I would have to sit down for a few moments and think through it, and about 70% of the time I would likely respond with: Pasta. (In case you're wondering about the other 30% it'd be divided 25%: Pizza and 5%: Flavor of the Moment.)

I can think of no other food that in my experience has proven itself to be so amazingly versatile and varied, and I am not just talking about the shapes of dried pasta, I am also talking about the sauces. These two factors that share such a Chicken-and-the-Egg relationship with each other up to the point where you can have a solid argument with a fellow pasta lover on what shape of pasta combines best with what kind of sauce. Assuming that you can agree on which variety of dough you pick in the first place. Though truth be told each of these ideas are leading somewhere...perhaps a description of my Favorite meal, the one (shamefully or no) that I feed myself when I want my (and I cannot stress this enough) FAVORITE pasta dinner.

Dough
Dough is to Pasta as clay is to pottery, I like this metaphor because of how true it works mechanically. You can't make good pottery without good clay and you can't make good pasta without good dough. Anyone who has made pasta from scratch looking for relatively authentic texture knows that the very specific texture of the pasta comes from Semolina/Durum flour, though you can make homemade pasta without it...it really doesn't compare. But wait a minute! what about the flavored dough!!! Which I have to say are generally more fun and more exciting. When it comes to my personal preference I love the Spinach flavored dough, something about that appetising green colour does it for me every time.

Shape
Shape is married to sauce, they are intentionally designed to complement each other. You've got funny shaped pasta, long pasta, pasta that is meant to go into soup, try cooking lasagna with full pasta sheets and you gain a whole new apreciation for how impressive the stuff is. When it comes to my preference...I like the long pasta, the kind that you can twirl around your fork and eat with gusto and some fun. I usually buy linguine because it's a good midground long pasta that can be used for most kinds of sauces, but for my strong preference...nothing beats fettuccine.

Sauce
Okay, sauce, what can I say here that hasn't already been said...well my title is IMHO. I think that there are only four kinds of sauces: Vegetable based, Stock/gravy Based, Dairy based, and Oil/fat based.
My Rationale: Okay, how can I argue this? easy. the nature of a sauce is that it is a medium for other flavors to become active condiments for the pasta. That means that really you've got limited options for getting your flavor-solids onto your pasta solids. the typical methods use vegetable puré(marinara), Milk or cream(Alfredo), Oils (Pesto), or a stock/gravy (demi-glacé). This isn't to say that you won't find oil in a marinara or meat in your cream sauce, it is however saying that one of the four methods I mentioned is going to be likely....I can't think of another kind of sauce method.
Okay....here's my "shameful" bit normally I just make my sauces from scratch...it's really not that hard, and I find it amazingly relaxing, however when I'm in the mood for my favorite dish I almost always go for Hunt's Tomato Sauce. Call it nostalgia if you wish, but nothing tastes the same.

Toppings
"Duh, pasta doesn't have topings..." Yes, yes it does, what do you think all that "Parmasan" you've been shaking on top of it is? what about the black pepper you grate over the dish? what about that little bit of parsley? Shit! WHAT ABOUT THE MEAT BALLS!?!
Yes, pasta does have toppings, little additions to the dish intended to help contrast of complement the flavors found within the sauce. Usually cheese, sometimes meat, sometimes other vegitables, but the toppings do exist and they shouldn't be ashamed of their toppings status,
Yet for my dish...grated old cheddar and simple meatballs do the job. Nothing fancy.

So my FAVORITE pasta meal...Spinach Fettuccine with tomato sauce, meat balls, and grated cheddar. Nothing terribly fancy, nothing complicated, the kind of thing a kid would like, which is kind of the idea, this meal is nostalgic to me, Every time I eat it I go back to being eight years old, if only for the duration of the meal.