Capunti
Also known as capunte.
What it is
Capunti are formed by dragging two or three fingers down a short oval of semolina dough, opening it into a long cavity that reads like an empty pea pod or a split hot-dog bun. Sources treat them as a variety of cavatelli from Apulia, with the same name recorded as a regional term in Basilicata. Where cavatelli are rolled with a single finger into a short curled shell, capunti are pulled longer and left more open, so the hollow runs the length of the piece. They are made from durum wheat semolina and water, with no egg.
What sauce it wants, and why
The long open hollow and the dragged-rough surface catch chunky sauce along the whole piece rather than just in a single curl. Makers and food references pair capunti with hearty meat and vegetable sauces, the kind of thick ragu or tomato dressing that lodges in the cavity. Lighter coatings slide off a shape built to hold.
No capunti? Use these
Closest swaps by sauce behavior, not by looks. The ones most easily confused with capunti, and how they read.
Easy to confuse with
Cupped or dragged. Conchiglie is a ridged shell, lumache a snail with one opening, orecchiette a smooth concave ear, cavatelli a small rolled hull with a hollow, capunti a longer open pod dragged with several fingers, and strascinati a flat dragged oval.
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From the Almanac
Updates from Pasta Almanac, when there is something worth sharing.