Farfalle
far-FAHL-leh
Also known as bow ties, bow tie pasta, strichetti.
What it is
Farfalle began as a way to waste nothing. In Emilia, cooks rolling egg dough for stuffed cappelletti kept the offcuts, trimmed them into small rectangles, and pinched each one at the middle. Most accounts place this habit in the 16th century in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, which makes the butterfly one of Italy's older documented shapes. In Emilia the pasta is still called strichetti, a dialect word usually glossed as pinches, after the squeeze that forms it. Hand-cut pieces show two ruffled edges where the dough was trimmed, while the other two sides stay straight, and the center gathers into a tight frill. Industrial drying turned the home shape into a pantry standard. De Cecco sells it as cut no. 93, Garofalo as no. 78, and Rummo as no. 85, and American packages relabel it bow tie pasta. Sizes now run from tiny farfalline up to farfalloni.
Farfalle is the plural of Italian farfalla, butterfly. Wiktionary traces farfalla, with some hedging, to Old Italian parpaglione and Latin papilio, and records a rival theory pointing to Arabic and Berber butterfly words.
What sauce it wants, and why
The pinch does the work. Where the rectangle folds at the center the dough doubles up, so the knot cooks firmer than the thin wings around it, and each piece lands with two textures in one bite. Producers steer the shape toward light, clinging sauces for the same reason. De Cecco suggests butter with peas and ham, cream with salmon, and soft cheese sauces, while Rummo points to light, creative sauces that settle into the folds. The ruffled wings also hold dressing without collapsing, which is why cold pasta salads lean on farfalle.
Salmon cream·Pesto Genovese·Tomato sauce
Classic plates: farfalle al salmone, strichetti in brodo, farfalle alla cremasca, cold farfalle pasta salad.
No farfalle? Use these
Closest swaps by sauce behavior, not by looks. The ones most easily confused with farfalle, and how they read.
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