Candele
kan-DEH-leh
Very long smooth tube, broken by hand before cooking.
14 mm across, 1.3 mm wall
Name. Candles. Long straight tubes the length of a candle.
What it is
Candele are long smooth tubes, up to half a metre, sold whole and snapped into pieces by the cook. They are the Neapolitan shape for the Genovese onion sauce and the Sunday ragu, and the breaking of the candles is part of the ritual.
Ziti lunghi are the narrower cousin. Candele are wider, closer to a long rigatoni without ridges.
How to cook candele
13 to 17 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
13:00
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 candele. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 12 minutes. A hairline of white at the centre is al dente.
- 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.
How it holds sauce
Broken into uneven lengths, the wide smooth tube fills with a slow sauce and holds it: the Neapolitan Genovese, a ragu napoletano, a baked dish.
Pairs with: Ragu napoletano · Meat ragu · Baked (al forno) · Pomodoro
Classic plates: Candele alla genovese, Candele spezzate al ragu.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
2 brands, 2 product pages. Cook times run from 10 to 12 minutes across brands, so read the box, not a rule. A blank cell is a figure the brand does not state.
| Brand | Product | No. | Cook | Length | Width or Ø | Wall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rummo | Penne Candela | 77 | 10 min | 60 mm | 12.5 mm | 1.35 mm |
| La Molisana | Candele Pastaartisan line | 107 | 12 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 candele? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Other names
candele lunghe, candele spezzate, zitoni.
Sources
- Penne Candela, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Candele Pasta (artisan), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: typical dried, brand pages.
- 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.
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.