Cappelli da chef
Extruded pasta that looks like a chef's hat.
Name. Italian for chef's hats. The piece resembles a cook's tall hat.
What it is
Cappelli da chef are a short extruded shape that looks like a cook's tall hat. The piece has a domed crown and curled edges that catch sauce. Marcozzi di Campofilone makes an egg version, with 30 percent fresh eggs in durum semolina, cut on bronze dies and dried slowly. Its retail page gives a cook time of 10 to 12 minutes. A maker near Vesuvius sells a semolina version.
No source names a region of origin. One retailer says the shape began as a mistake in programming the cutter on an extruder, but no producer page confirms that story. Retail pages suggest a plain tomato sauce, or stuffing the hats and baking them. The curled rim holds a thick sauce well.
How to cook cappelli da chef
11 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
11:00
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 cappelli da chef. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 10 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.
What it is served with
Pairs with: Pomodoro · Baked (al forno) · Meat ragu · Cream sauce
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
1 brand, 1 product page.
| Brand | Product | Cook |
|---|---|---|
| Marcozzi di Campofilone | Cappello da Chef egg pasta 250g (retailer page states 10 to 12 min) | 11 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 cappelli da chef? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look.
Other names
Chef's hats, cappelli dello chef, cappelli di chef, cappello da chef, chef's hats.
Sources
- Cappello da Chef egg pasta 250g (retailer page states 10 to 12 min), Marcozzi di Campofilone (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Alma Gourmet: Cappello da Chef Campofilone (profile: origin, form, use)
- Emerge: Marcozzi Antica Pasta Cappello da Chef (profile: origin, form, use)
- HKTasty: Cappelli da Chef (profile: origin, form, use)
- Wikipedia (en): List of pasta (profile: origin, form, use)
- Cook time: Marcozzi di Campofilone Cappello da Chef egg pasta 250g (retailer page states 10 to 12 min): 11 min.
- Photograph: Cappelli da chef.jpg, Popo le Chien, CC0.
- 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.
- Cappelli da chef, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.