Tubes

A tube doubles the working surface of pasta: every piece has an inside and an outside. The bore decides what gets in. Narrow tubes carry sauce as a film, wide tubes swallow solids whole. Cut the end square and the tube scoops. Cut it on the diagonal and it spears. Ridges, a gift of the extrusion die, hold a film of sauce and cheese against the outer wall. The family runs from elbow macaroni to paccheri you could wear as a ring, and it owes its existence to the press, since no rolling pin makes a hole.

Compare the family

Shape	Section	Cook (min)	Surface
Calamarata	wide short ring	13	smooth
Candele	long smooth wide hollow tube with a round section, larger in bore than ziti	9-12	smooth
Cannolicchi	short small hollow tube, an open ring	11-12	ridged
Ditali	short straight tube	9	smooth
Macaroni	short curved tube, open at both ends	5-10	smooth
Manicotti	round	6-8	ridged
Mezze maniche	short wide ridged tube	11	ridged
Occhi di Lupo	large smooth short tube	10-12	smooth
Paccheri	very wide smooth tube	12-19	smooth
Penne	tube cut on the diagonal	10-12	ridged
Rigatoni	wide straight-cut ridged tube	12-14	ridged
Sedani	slightly curved ridged tube	12	ridged
Tortiglioni	tube with spiral ridges	10-13	ridged
Ziti	smooth straight tube, sold long for hand-breaking or pre-cut	8-12	smooth