Caccavelle
Large bowl-like pasta intended for stuffing.
Name. Neapolitan for pots. Wikipedia traces it to Latin cacabus, a cooking pot.
What it is
Caccavelle are giant pasta shells shaped like small pots. La Fabbrica della Pasta di Gragnano makes them and calls them the largest pasta shape in the world. Each piece is 9 centimetres wide, 6 centimetres tall, and weighs 50 grams. The dough is durum wheat semolina and water, pushed through bronze dies and dried at low temperature for 36 to 40 hours.
They come from Gragnano, near Naples, the town behind Pasta di Gragnano PGI. Each shell is one portion. Cooks boil it for a few minutes, fill it, and bake it in a terracotta dish. The classic filling is alla sorrentina: tomato sauce, mozzarella, minced meat and ricotta. The producer's data sheet gives 5 minutes of boiling plus the time in the oven.
How to cook caccavelle
5 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
5:00
Start when the water returns to the boil.
Water and salt
- Pasta, dry
- 400 g
- Water
- 4 L
- Salt
- 40 g
100 g per person as a main. A litre and 10 g of salt per 100 g. Adjust with the portion calculator.
The steps
- Bring 4 L of water to a full boil in a tall pot. Add 40 g of salt when it boils.
- Add the caccavelle. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Keep the water at a gentle boil, not a rolling one, so the parcels do not split. They are done about a minute after they float.
- Scoop out a cup of the cooking water. Drain, or lift the pasta straight into the pan.
- Toss with the sauce over the heat for a minute. Add cooking water a splash at a time until it clings.
Read more: what al dente means and why the pasta water matters. Times for every shape are on the cook page.
What it is served with
Pairs with: Baked (al forno) · Pomodoro · Ragu napoletano · Ricotta
Classic plates: Caccavelle alla sorrentina.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
1 brand, 1 product page.
| Brand | Product | Cook |
|---|---|---|
| La Fabbrica della Pasta di Gragnano | A' Caccavella (distributor data sheet: 5 min boiling plus baking) | 5 min |
Nutrition
Per 100 g of dry semolina pasta. The shape does not change these numbers. The dough does, so a whole wheat or egg version of this shape reads differently. See every dough.
| Per 100 g | Energy | Protein | Carbohydrate | Fibre | Fat | Sodium | Iron |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry | 371 kcal | 13.0 g | 74.7 g | 3.2 g | 1.5 g | 6 mg | 3.3 mg |
| Cooked | 158 kcal | 5.8 g | 30.9 g | 1.8 g | 0.9 g | 1 mg | 1.3 mg |
One portion. 100 g dry becomes about 235 g cooked, 371 kcal and 13 g of protein. Pasta takes on 2.3 times its weight in the pot.
No caccavelle? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look.
Other names
A' Caccavella, Pentole (Naples), caccavella, pentole.
Sources
- A' Caccavella (distributor data sheet: 5 min boiling plus baking), La Fabbrica della Pasta di Gragnano (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- The Pasta Project: Caccavelle giant pasta shells (profile: origin, form, use)
- Wikipedia (it): Caccavelle (profile: origin, form, use)
- Base Alimentare: A' Caccavella data sheet (profile: origin, form, use)
- Badalù (Giallo Zafferano): La Caccavella, consigli sulla cottura (profile: origin, form, use)
- Cook time: La Fabbrica della Pasta di Gragnano A' Caccavella (distributor data sheet: 5 min boiling plus baking): 5 min.
- Photograph: Caccavelle.jpg, Budino allo Celestino, CC BY-SA 2.0.
- USDA FoodData Central (nutrition per 100 g, by dough: FDC 169736, Pasta, dry, enriched; FDC 169737, Pasta, cooked, enriched, without added salt), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
- Caccavelle, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q16534530, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.