Cavatelli
kah-vah-TEL-ee
Also known as cecatelli, cicatelli, cecatidde, cavatieddi, cavatielle, cavateddhi, orecchie di prete, manatelli, truoccoli, cingule, minuich, rascatelli, zinnezinne, cantaroggini, cortecce, mignuicchi, strascenate, tagghjunghele, pizzicarieddi, pincinelle, 'ncatenate, cazzarille, ciufele, cavasuneddi, cavatuneddi, gnucchitti, gnocculi, parmitieddi, crusicchi, croseti.
What it is
Cavatelli belongs to the old hand-formed pasta tradition of southern Italy. Molise and Puglia both claim it, and food writers tend to leave the dispute open. The shape needs no machine and no egg, just semolina, water, and a moving fingertip, which points to a long peasant history. Food history pages report that the shape was already on southern tables in the reign of Frederick II, in the first half of the 1200s, under the older name croseti. That story is attribution, not a documented record. The spread is easier to trace. The shape moved through Abruzzo, Campania, Basilicata, Calabria, and Sicily, and picked up a new dialect name in almost every town, more than two dozen by Wikipedia's count. The Pasta Project relays a Molise legend that mothers-in-law checked a bride's fingertips for signs of cavatelli practice. Emigrants carried the shape abroad, and dried and frozen versions now sit in ordinary American supermarkets.
From Italian cavato, past participle of cavare, to hollow out, from Latin cavare, a derivative of cavus meaning hollow. Wiktionary reads the plural diminutive cavatelli literally as little hollows.
What sauce it wants, and why
Each piece is a small scoop. The dragged hollow holds whatever a sauce carries, so cavatelli works best when there is something to catch, crumbled sausage, white beans, chopped greens, clams. The dough is eggless semolina, dense and springy, so it stands up to a long simmered ragu without going slack. Lighter dishes run on the same logic. Broccoli rabe with garlic and oil lodges in the cavity, while a loose tomato sauce films the outside and pools in the cup. Thin smooth sauces waste the shape.
Sausage ragu·Broccoli rabe·Tomato sauce·Shellfish and legumes
Classic plates: cavatelli con cime di rapa, cavatelli al ragu di salsiccia, cavatelli cozze e ceci.
No cavatelli? Use these
Closest swaps by sauce behavior, not by looks. The ones most easily confused with cavatelli, and how they read.
Cavatelli vs Orecchiette·Cavatelli vs Malloreddus·Cavatelli vs Conchiglie·Cavatelli vs Lumache·Cavatelli vs Pisarei
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.