I enjoy pasta and it is one of the easiest things to cook, but you can still get it wrong. I like linguine as it's slightly thicker than spaghetti and easier to manage, but I end up snapping the strands in half so it's easier to cook and drain as I always lose some strands on the counter or in the sink. Draining it can be a nightmare and making sure all the strands are cooked, pushing them down all the time. The easiest one is penne or rigatoni as they are easy to manage and I can leave them to cook and I don't lose any when I drain them.
I go between traditional spaghetti and elbow or shell macaroni. When cooked with the right temperature, both types of pasta achieve a firm yet juicy consistency. My specialty is Spaghetti Bolognese, though I've been meaning to prepare Carbonara for some time now (I always end up forgetting to buy the ingredients). My mom taught me how to make chicken macaroni so whenever someone's having a birthday or anniversary, there's no question about the presence of chicken macaroni.
I haven't really encountered any major problems with cooking pasta in general. I always bring a big pot of salted water to the boil, put the pasta in for 5 minutes, test if they are ready, then either drain them or let them cook for a little longer. I find the process to be pretty much the same with all types of pasta. The key is to taste the pasta and check how much longer they need to get "al dente" and not mushy.
I break long pasta as well, even though I know some people shun doing that. The problem is, if I let the pasta rest against the edge of the pot, and it doesn't sink into the water in time, then the dry pasta starts to burn against the edge of the pan and turn brown - which looks really ugly in the finished dish. Even worse, the burnt pasta will also stick together, even after it boils. We also have a really tall and narrow pot for doing long pastas - it even has a strainer built into it, so you just fish it out when the pasta is done. It sort of works OK, but as it solves one problem it starts another. The pasta doesn't have any room to move around, plus it's cumbersome to stir so it will often stick together even worse. The other thing is the water takes forever to come to a boil in it for some reason. Another pasta I find tricky to cook is bowtie pasta. It often looks "done" but you still need to keep checking it in the center because that is often still undercooked and tough. I've noticed bowtie pasta in general takes much longer to cook.
I have always viewed pastas as equally easy as you just boil, drain and serve. I guess the easiest one would be something like shells of bow ties as they don't get tangled in the serving utensil. You can really use any pasta you want with any sauce you want. There are traditions that have something to do with surface area for the sauce to stick on and things like that, but it's not a rule. You can be creative.
Another nice thing about short sturdy pastas like Rigatoni or Penne is that they cook up rather fine in your microwave. Just throw some into a microwave safe bowl, and top it with a few inches of water and microwave for about 12 minutes (8 minutes or so for egg noodles), then drain. No need to wait an additional 10-15 minutes for a pot of water to come to a boil on top of the time it takes to cook the pasta. I wouldn't do this if serving guests, but when I cook for myself or if I am making something like a batch of pasta salad, it works just fine and saves time and pots and pans.
I'm glad I'm not the only one as people think it's weird to break it, but it's practical especially when serving. I have friends that struggle so shorter strands are less messy and easier to serve. You are right to get the pasta to cook the whole length needs attention and I often multitask so I prefer to keep the pasta easier to cook. The irony is with spaghetti unless it is an Italian that people tend to cut up their spaghetti into manageable lengths (I watch them in restaurants) so I may as well do it from the start.
I find pasta is one of the easiest dishes to make, too. Basically, there are two methods which I use to cook pasta, depending on the type of pasta I cook. If I am lazy and have shells available at home, I will have my shells soaked with cool tap water for a few minutes while I prepare the other ingredients. When the ingredients are almost cooked, I will have my shells drained and then mixed it with the cooked ingredients in the cooking pot. Let the mixed shells boiled, then turn off the fire and leave it in the cooking pot steamed inside the pot for a few minutes. The other method is to boil the pasta in hot salty water, and then mixed with the cooked ingredients. It is not difficult at all, either.
I'd go with the traditional macaroni and cheese. Macaroni pasta is very easy to cook since it comes in small, compact pieces that can be cooked in a matter of minutes. If I don't have any pasta sauce, another simple way I enjoy my macaroni is in the form of soup macaroni, with little chunks of ham and cream of mushroom soup.
