Chifferi
KEEF-feh-ree
Short curved elbow tube, usually ridged.
8.5 mm across, 1 mm wall
Name. From the Austrian Kipferl, a crescent pastry. The curved tube looks like a small croissant.
What it is
Chifferi is the Italian elbow: a short curved tube, usually ridged, a little fatter than an American elbow. Gomiti, elbows, is the other name. It is a soup and salad shape in Italy and a mac-and-cheese shape abroad.
Chifferi rigati is the ridged grade and holds sauce better than the smooth elbow.
How to cook chifferi
8 to 10 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
8:00
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 chifferi. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 7 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
Curved and ridged, it holds a cheese sauce or a dressing in the bend and on the grooves. Soups, cold salads, and simple tomato or cream sauces.
Pairs with: Mac and cheese · Pasta salad · Minestrone · Pasta e fagioli · Cream sauce
Classic plates: Chifferi al pomodoro, Pasta e fagioli con chifferi, Macaroni and cheese.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
2 brands, 2 product pages. Cook times run from 10 to 13 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 | Width or Ø | Wall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rummo | Gomiti Rigati | 169 | 10 min | 15 mm | 1.2 to 1.5 mm |
| La Molisana | Chifferi Rigati | 55 | 13 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 chifferi? 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
Gomiti, chifferi lisci, chifferi rigati, elbows, gomiti.
Sources
- Gomiti Rigati, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Chifferi Rigati, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: typical dried, brand pages.
- Photograph: Chifferi rigati.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.
- Chifferi, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.