The disagreement started once we saw all those new Olive Garden commercials doing it. Her point is that nothing is going to taste great with the same thing used twice in a dish. I say differently. Like if you add a good Italian sauce or something and use rigatoni noddles.
You are both right. Arguing for completely unrelated things. Potatoes with pasta is indeed way too much starch for a healthy diet, if you are eating it on the regular and doubling your ingestion of carbs and starch. But it has nothing to do with taste, they taste fine together, as the many fine recipes and dishes everyone else have posted. They will make you bloaty though, the best is to regulate the portions back to a recommended protein/fibre/carb proportion, and you won’t even notice.