I have big white pasta bowls but I didn't buy them myself. They were a part of a set from Pier 1 that my aunt gave me when I moved into my first apartment. I don't use them very often but they are handy when I have a dish that has bigger portions or might be messy in a smaller bowl like stew or chili can be.

I love the idea of the sets with the larger serving bowl and smaller ones for eating but in practice this never seemed to work for me. I just mix my pasta in the pan and if I need to serve it in something besides a plate, I use a set of shallow bowls that are used for soups or other dishes that have lots of sauce that needs to be contained.

I have "pasta bowls," and I love them--for everything but pasta. Like you said earlier, they're just too big for something so carb based. (I like white pasta. A lot.) I DO love the size of them though--perfect so many things. The wide+shallow design makes them particularly lovely for holding produce on the table/fridge.

I always mix my pasta and sauce in the pan anyway, so the reason you're looking into specific bowls away doesn't really apply. But hey, if new bowls will suit your lifestyle and you'll definitely use them, go for it!

I rec'd some Crate & Barrel pasta bowls for Xmas and I love them! They're a lot bigger than the old (cereal) bowls I used to use so I'm still learning to adjust my serving sizes, but that's my only complaint. I plan to use them with stews, risotto, and things like osso bucco that are served over polenta, etc.

I have some Crate and Barrel Restaurant Coupe bowls I use for pasta and anything soupy: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/dining-and-entertaining/individual-bowls/restaurant-coupe-bowl/s334561. I use it more regularly than I thought I would--I guess we eat alot of pasta and soupy foods! They're roomy so the food presents well on the plate. The only problem I have is that eating utensils slide into the food when you try to rest them on the edge of the plate.

I have wide, shallow soup bowls that work for pasta, polenta, big dinner salads, and more. Great for serving smaller amounts of side dishes or holding fruit on the side board. We also have cereal bowls for cereal or brothy soups. It's all good.

Soup plates. Not too big, not too flat, not too steep. I always use them for pasta. And soup.

I used to eat pasta out of cereal bowls but then I got these: http://www.amazon.com/Corelle-Livingware-20-Ounce-Salad-Winter/dp/B0000CFPYA

I LOVE them. Of course I use them for more than just pasta. They're perfect for rice dishes too. Anything that just a big ol' pile of stuff.

I wouldn't if we hadn't received them as a wedding present (we didn't register for anything). We decided to keep the set of 4 and the large serving dish and love them. We hardly have company but when we do the serving dish is very handy. We get a kick out of using the special pasta bowls whenever we make pasta (or salad for that matter). It's a joke now to remark, "Let's use our PASTA BOWLS!!! Joy of joys!!"

We really do like them. :)

I have low wide bowls that I bought for pasta and I LOVE THEM. I use them for a variety of things and have never regretted the purchase.

I have one pasta bowl and wish I had more!!!

I have 6 or so Corell flat bowls - I am not sure they were intended for pasta but it seems to work with the descriptions here! They have a flat bottom but sloped sides - we use them for pasta or anything messy. Indespensible. They are used more than any other dishes, there are only two of us and the dishwasher needs to be run when they are gone!

For years really wanted some but was worried about buying and storing a one-use item. I finally picked up a set of four in an after Christmas sale. I quickly found, like many others on here, that they are perfect for any dish that involves sauce poured over a starch - curry, stir-fry, stew with noodles or mashed potato, pasta - plus being great salad plates. Since this describes 70% of my diet, mine are in constant use.

I have a set of wide, shallow bowls that my partner's parents gave us a few years back, and we use them whenever we have pasta or big salads. I don't think I would have ever bought that sort of bowl for myself, but I have to admit that I use them often and really like them.

Perhaps the solution is to buy just 2 or just 4 of the pasta specific bowls. If you like them, you can always add to the collection later:)

Soup plates FTW!!

We got some as a wedding gift from Williams Sonoma. We were registered there and didn't want pasta bowls but never returned them for some reason. We used to use them until I realized that encouraged huge portions. Now we use soup bowls for pasta and occasionally use them for salad. Waste of space, really.

I have just two pasta bowls - the things are huge! I only brake them out when me and the BF sit and have a pasta based meal - like last night. Just made penne w/ homemade red sauce and some italian sausages from a local butcher. Good thing he was late - I plated and put back in the oven so the cheese got all melty - SOOO GOOD.

We have a set of dishes that were a gift from my mother in law that include a set of soup plates. I hate using them for soup because they don't hold much and are ridiculously easy to spill. They are terrific for other things that are more solid but still need sides for containment, like pasta, risotto, polenta, etc.

Yeah, I would go for something more like soup plates-- they're just like smaller pasta bowls, and make for much more reasonable serving sizes. I'll use mine for pasta, chilli, salads or various grain or vegetable dishes... plus maybe half a dozen other uses I'm forgetting just now. They're seriously great.

I didn't think I needed any, but I actually acquired some large-scale bowls in a vintage midcentury dish set (Paul McCobb) and I use them often - for anything from pasta to popcorn to salads. So...who knew?

I have pasta/soup bowls. I love them! They're the perfect size for a portion of pasta. I love having a more shallow bowl to serve in.

We have pasta bowls. Again, wouldn't have bought them for myself, but since receiving them as a wedding gift, we use them ALL THE TIME. We eat a lot of pasta (always wheat, so I am deluded into not feeling guilty about it). But like others have said, we use them for all kinds of other stuff; stew, chili, stir-fry, main-course salads. Definitely not a unitasker.

we have 'pasta bowls' but they are used just as often as any other dishes we have. Anything that has a 'base' and a 'sauce' we use them for (think: pasta & red sauce; rice & stir fry; rice & curry; ...) we also use them for stew&soup or a nice big dinner salad!

We have a big set of pasta bowls we use constantly for "bowl foods"- chili, heartier soups, pastas, mac and cheese. Stuff like that. They were billed as pasta bowls but are just wide lipped bigger bowls (unfortunately with a stupid "twirling hole" in them no one I have ever met uses!) I find almost any set of china (high all the way to super low end) the bowls are SO small I can't put much but cereal in them.

We have pasta bowls, they were a gift. My first thought was that i'd never use them, but now they are my favorite.

Yes to the pasta bowls. Like nwatrous, I love the Corelle 20-ounce pasta bowls. My grocery store sells them as does WalMart.

We do have some pasta bowls/soup plates, and I use them all the time: for pasta, sure, but also for stir-fry, for curries, for risotto, for anything a little too saucy for a plate, anything that requires a little fork-twirling or scooping, anything eaten with chopsticks.

They are big, but I don't think they're intended to be heaping full: if you put a reasonable serving of pasta in the center well, that rim is handy for a garnish of some kind or, if you're not fancy, for balancing a slice of garlic bread.

When I serve peanut noodle salad, for example, I might array some fried tofu or fried sweet potato there. When we have eggs poached in black beans (an easy breakfast or midnight supper, known in our home as huevos con whatnot), I serve them in those shallow bowls, then set a warm tortilla (or toast or, what the heck, tortilla chips) on the rim.

We have four - they are great for pasta, as well as big salads, and stews and other one-dish meals. I love them. (They are also the best china we have, being purchased separately at TJ Maxx...)

I never thought of not having pasta bowls! I use them for anything that involves amounts of liquid that could potentially make a mess. Soups, stews, salads, meat with sauces, etc. I usually end up using all my pasta bowls before using my flat plates each week when I do dishes.

For some reason, I really wanted pasta bowls when I was in high school, so I received some for a graduation present. Now, 15 years later, we still use them all the time for pasta and salads. These aren't the massive ones like restaurants use--rather, they're wider and flatter without a giant rim. They don't take up much space. In fact, I just bought a second set for Asian noodles (no, they aren't any different except the color scheme).

My mum uses her "next dish set" bowls for pasta.

He next dish set is the set she has for when too many of the ones she currently has break. She's kinda crazy like that.

But the bowls are perfect for pasta or soup, they are very wide with very steep sides. I love them.

We use our soup plates for pasta (and just about everything else we eat - except for soup itself).

I don't have specific bowls for pasta,..I have several bowls which I use for noodles and pasta

+1 for the soup plate, for pasta, soup, salad, stews, etc.

We have bowls that we probably use more for pasta than anything else, but they also get used for soup (sometimes), casserole, meals involving some kind of gravy or sauce you want on everything (potroast with mashed potatoes, for example). Here they are:

http://www.amazon.com/Fiesta-9-Inch-13-1-4-Ounce-Shamrock/dp/B000NUV72M/ref=wr_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1BIYDO5I6Y2FM&colid=156MSPEMC8N7L