Cannelloni
kan-nel-LOH-nee
Large smooth tube for stuffing, or a rolled sheet.
27.5 mm across, 1.1 mm wall
Name. From canna, a reed or cane, with the augmentative -oni. Big reeds.
What it is
Cannelloni are large tubes, about ten centimetres long and three across, sold dried for stuffing, or made by rolling a sheet of fresh pasta around a filling. The dish dates to the early twentieth century in Naples and Sorrento and spread fast.
They are always baked: stuffed with ricotta and spinach or with meat, covered with tomato or bechamel, and finished in the oven. Manicotti is the Italian-American version, usually a ridged tube.
How to cook cannelloni
20 to 30 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
20:00
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 cannelloni. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 19 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
The tube is a container. The filling is the point, and the sauce on top must be smooth so it bakes into the pasta: a tomato, a bechamel, or both.
Pairs with: Baked (al forno) · Pomodoro · Cream sauce
Classic plates: Cannelloni ricotta e spinaci, Cannelloni di carne, Cannelloni alla sorrentina.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
2 brands, 2 product pages. Cook times run from 10 to 25 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 | Cannelloni All'Uovoegg | 176 | 25 min | 96.5 mm | 24.5 mm | 1.15 mm |
| La Molisana | Cannelloniartisan line | 312 | 10 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.
Who makes cannelloni
395 cannelloni products are catalogued, most of them sold in France, Spain, Germany. Of those, 12 are organic.
Brands: Bonarea (60), Carrefour (16), Auchan (15), Zapetti (10), Saint Jean (7), Thiriet (7), U (6), Casino (5), Cora (5), Panzani (5).
No cannelloni? 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
Cannaciotti, cannarone or cannerone (Naples), cannarune (Apulia), cannelloni sheets, cannelloni zitoni, canneloni, canneroncini, canneroni, cannoli or crusetti (Sicily), gnocchettoni zitoni, manfriguli or manfrigoli (Valtellina), manicotti (in the US), schiaffoni, sigarette, spole, tagliati di zitoni.
Sources
- Cannelloni All'Uovo (egg), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Cannelloni (artisan), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: oven, stuffed and baked.
- Photograph: Cannelloni2.png, Popo le Chien, CC0.
- Open Food Facts (products, brands, labels), Open Database License, read on 2026-08-25.
- 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.
- Cannelloni, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q20010, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.