Cannolicchi
kahn-noh-LEEK-kee
Also known as cannolicchi rigati, canolicchi, cannolicchi medi.
Measured to scale. The illustrated portrait is in production.
Specifications
short small hollow tube, an open ring
What it is
A small hollow tube built for soup, cannolicchi turns up across southern Italian kitchens in legume and starch dishes like pasta e fagioli and pasta e patate. Treccani records the culinary sense plainly as a short pierced pasta well suited to legume minestre. The name doubles for the razor clam, and Garofalo notes the cut takes its shape from that shell. In Naples the rigati version is paired with eggplant cooked a funghetto as well as dropped into brothy bean and potato pots.
From the Italian cannolicchio, a diminutive of cannolo, itself from canna (cane, reed), so literally a little reed or little tube. The same word names the razor clam, an elongated bivalve, and makers describe the pasta as resembling that shell.
What sauce it wants, and why
A short small tube reads as a soup and braise pasta first. Its open ends and ridged wall take in starchy bean and potato liquids, so it sits well in pasta e fagioli and similar minestre rather than under a heavy dressed sauce. When served drained it suits light tomato or vegetable cuts that cling to the ridges.
Classic plates: pasta e fagioli, pasta e patate, cannolicchi con le melanzane a funghetto.
No cannolicchi? Use these
Closest swaps by sauce behavior, not by looks. The ones most easily confused with cannolicchi, and how they read.
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From the Almanac
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