Casarecce
kah-zah-RECH-cheh
Short strip rolled into an S, with a groove down the middle.
Name. Home-made, from casa. The shape imitates a strip of dough rolled by hand around a rod.
What it is
Casarecce is a short strip of pasta rolled lengthwise so the edges curl in toward each other, leaving a narrow channel down the middle and an S-shaped cross-section. It comes from Sicily and is related to the hand-rolled busiate.
The channel holds sauce and the rough surface grips it, so it is a strong shape for pesto and sausage.
How to cook casarecce
9 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
9:00
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 casarecce. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 8 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
A trough down the middle and a slight twist, so it carries pesto, ricotta, sausage crumbs, and a chunky vegetable sauce. In Sicily it takes pesto alla trapanese and the Norma.
Pairs with: Pesto alla genovese · Pesto alla trapanese · Sausage ragu · Norma · Ricotta
Classic plates: Casarecce al pesto di pistacchio, Casarecce con salsiccia, Casarecce alla Norma.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
3 brands, 3 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 | Casarecce | 88 | 10 min | 45 mm | 8.9 mm | 1.4 mm |
| Garofalo | Gluten Free Casareccegluten-free | 12 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Caserecce Molisane | 29 | 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.
Who makes casarecce
19 casarecce products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, United Kingdom, South Africa. Of those, 2 are gluten-free, 3 are organic, 2 are Gragnano PGI, 2 are made in Italy.
Brands: Barilla (2), Harmons (1), Rao S Homemade (1), Pnp (1), Harmons Inc (1), Tesco Finest (1), Garafalo (1), Bio Company (1), Barilla America Inc (1), Banza (1).
No casarecce? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Gemelli
Short shapes · All of Italy
one strand folded and twisted on itself, like two strands entwined
Strozzapreti
Short shapes · Emilia-Romagna
strip of dough rolled between the palms into a loose twist
Busiate
Hand-formed · Sicily
long strip wound around a reed into a loose coil
Fusilli
Short shapes · Campania
short solid spiral, three blades twisted around a core
Other names
Casarecci, Cesariccia, casareccia, caserecce.
Sources
- Casarecce, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Gluten Free Casarecce (gluten-free), Garofalo (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Caserecce Molisane, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: typical dried, brand pages.
- Photograph: Casarecce closeup.jpg, 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.
- Casarecce, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q25047421, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.