A field guide to pasta shapes
The shape is half the recipe.
Every sauce needs something to hang onto. Rigatoni's ridges grab a ragù. Capellini lets it slide right to the bottom of the bowl. So here's every shape we know: what it's called, how big it is, and what to cook it with.
On every shape page
What it is
Its name, the other dozen names it goes by, where it's from, and the stories behind it. The fun made-up ones too, just labeled as legends.
How big it is
Length, width, wall thickness, cook time, straight from the makers' spec sheets. Rigatoni is a 16 mm tube with a 1.1 mm wall. If nobody's measured it, we just say so.
The sauce it wants
Why it grabs what it grabs, the sauces it was made for, and what to swap in when the store's out.
A few favorites
Got a pasta question?
Start with one of these. They come up a lot.
The eight families
- Long strands
Round and oval section, built to twirl
- Ribbons
Flat cuts from a rolled sheet
- Tubes
Extruded cylinders, smooth or ridged
- Shaped shorts
Twists, curls, shells, and wheels
- Sheets and broad cuts
Pasta as building material
- Stuffed
Parcels, rings, and pinched packets
- Pastina
The smallest shapes, made for spoons
- Hand-formed regional
Shapes that need fingers, boards, and rods
By region
Most shapes come from one very specific place. Pick a region and see what it gave the world.
Newsletter
Pasta mail
A new shape now and then, plus whatever pasta rabbit hole we fell down lately. No spam, promise.