Gramigna
grah-MEEN-yah
What it is
A short, curled hollow pasta from Emilia-Romagna, presumed to have started in the Bologna area as a fresh egg pasta pushed through a press. It is named after the gramigna weed: the little tubes are said to echo the seeds or creeping shoots of couch grass. Now also sold dried in durum semolina, but its defining pairing has always been a crumbled sausage sauce.
From Latin graminea, feminine of gramineus, grassy, from gramen, grass. The pasta borrows the name of gramigna, the couch grass weed.
What sauce it wants, and why
The tight curl and open tube give a chunky sausage ragu many edges to grab, so crumbled meat lodges in the bends instead of sliding off. The short length keeps every forkful a mix of pasta and sauce. Cream or tomato in the sausage sauce coats the smooth walls without weighing the small tubes down.
Classic plates: gramigna con la salsiccia, gramigna alla salsiccia.
No gramigna? Use these
Closest swaps by sauce behavior, not by looks. The ones most easily confused with gramigna, and how they read.
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From the Almanac
Updates from Pasta Almanac, when there is something worth sharing.