Cencioni
Petal shaped, slightly curved with rough convex side.
Name. Italian for little rags, from cencio, a rag.
What it is
Cencioni are oval, petal-shaped pieces with a slight curl. One side is rough, so sauce clings. They are larger and flatter than orecchiette, and less regular. Rustichella d'Abruzzo makes a dried version from durum wheat semolina and water on bronze dies, then dries it slowly. Retailer pages for that product give a cook time of 20 to 22 minutes.
Rustichella places the shape in south-central Italy. The English Wikipedia list says southern Italy and gives mischiglio as the Basilicata name; mischiglio is also a Lucanian flour blend. Rustichella suggests tomato and basil. At the Palio in Siena its cencioni go to the winner with pecorino fondue, cherry tomatoes and rocket.
What it is served with
Pairs with: Pomodoro · Ricotta · Sausage ragu · Puttanesca · Broccoli and anchovy
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
1 brand, 1 product page.
| Brand | Product | Cook |
|---|---|---|
| Rustichella d'Abruzzo | Cencioni 250g |
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 cencioni? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look.
Other names
Mischiglio (Basilicata), mischiglio.
Sources
- Cencioni 250g, Rustichella d'Abruzzo (product page, from the brand's own product page)
- Casa Rustichella: Cencioni 250g (profile: origin, form, use)
- Wikipedia (en): Cencioni (profile: origin, form, use)
- Sfizierie di Bacco: Rustichella Cencioni (cook time) (profile: origin, form, use)
- Wikipedia (en): List of pasta (profile: origin, form, use)
- Photograph: Cencioni.jpg, Fazal Majid, Public domain.
- 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.
- Cencioni, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q16858629, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.