Cappelletti
kap-pel-LET-tee
Circle or square folded and pinched into a little hat.
30 mm square
Name. Little hats, from cappello.
What it is
Cappelletti are the Romagna and Marche version of tortellini: a folded parcel pinched into a hat shape, filled in Romagna with cheese and in the Marche and Umbria with meat. They are larger than Bolognese tortellini and the fold leaves a peak.
They are the Christmas pasta of Romagna, in capon broth.
How to cook cappelletti
3 to 5 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
3:00
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 cappelletti. 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.
How it holds sauce
In broth, like tortellini. The Romagna cheese filling also takes a ragu or cream when served dry.
Pairs with: In brodo · Meat ragu · Cream sauce · Butter and sage
Classic plates: Cappelletti in brodo, Cappelletti romagnoli al ragu, Cappelletti alla panna.
Nutrition
Per 100 g of fresh 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 | 288 kcal | 11.3 g | 54.7 g | g | 2.3 g | 26 mg | 3.4 mg |
| Cooked | 131 kcal | 5.2 g | 24.9 g | g | 1.1 g | 6 mg | 1.1 mg |
One portion. 100 g dry becomes about 220 g cooked, 288 kcal and 11 g of protein. Pasta takes on 2.2 times its weight in the pot.
Who makes cappelletti
7 cappelletti products are catalogued, most of them sold in Italy, France, Germany. Of those, 1 are made in Italy.
Brands: Garofalo (1), Betty Bossi (1), Palais Des Mets (1), Albert Heijn (1), Antichi Sapori Delle Marche (1), Emma Giordani (1), Voltan (1), Giovanni Rana (1).
No cappelletti? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Tortellini
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
small square folded over a filling and wrapped around the finger into a ring
Anolini
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
small round parcel stamped from two sheets, filled with braised beef
Cappellacci
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
large folded parcel filled with pumpkin, shaped like a peasant's hat
Other names
caplét, cappelletti marchigiani, cappelletti romagnoli, cappelli, cappelli del prete, or nicci in Tuscany.
Read more
Semolina versus egg dough: the two doughs of Italian pasta
The difference between durum semolina pasta and egg pasta: flour, water, eggs, where each is made, how each cooks, and which sauces each dough wants.
Fresh versus dried pasta: neither is better, they are different foods
The difference between fresh and dried pasta: dough, texture, cook time, storage, and which shapes and sauces belong to each.
Sources
- Cook time: fresh in broth.
- Photograph: Cappelletti1.JPG, No machine-readable author provided. Nerijp assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0.
- Open Food Facts (products, brands, labels), Open Database License, read on 2026-08-25.
- USDA FoodData Central (nutrition per 100 g, by dough: FDC 169727, Pasta, fresh-refrigerated, plain, as purchased; FDC 169728, Pasta, fresh-refrigerated, plain, cooked), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
- Cappelletti (pasta), Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q1034869, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.