Conchiglie

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Cupped shell with ridges on the outside.

Name. Shells, from conchiglia, a seashell.

How to cook conchiglie: 10 to 13 minutes, with a timer

What it is

Conchiglie are shells: a piece of pasta curled into a cup with a ridged outer face and a smooth inside. They come in three grades. Conchigliette for soup, conchiglie for sauces, conchiglioni for stuffing and baking.

The cup is what matters. Each shell scoops sauce as you eat it.

How to cook conchiglie

10 to 13 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 11 minutes, fully cooked at 13.

Custom, minutes

11:00

Start when the water returns to the boil.

Water and salt

People

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 conchiglie. 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.

How it holds sauce

A cup fills with whatever is in the pan: cheese sauce, cream with peas, a sausage crumble, a chunky tomato. Medium shells are a mac-and-cheese upgrade. Ridges hold sauce on the outside too.

Pairs with: Mac and cheese · Sausage ragu · Cream sauce · Vegetable ragu · Tuna and tomato · Pomodoro · Pasta salad

Classic plates: Shells and cheese, Conchiglie con salsiccia e broccoli, Conchiglie al pomodoro e ricotta.

By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets

5 brands, 11 product pages. Cook times run from 7 to 15 minutes across brands, so read the box, not a rule.

Brand	Product	No.	Cook	Wall	Notes
De Cecco	Shells no. 50	50	13 min, al dente 11
De Cecco	Small Shells no. 52	52	8 min
Rummo	Conchiglie Rigate	42	12 min	1.35 to 1.65 mm
Garofalo	Shells	84	10 min		Gragnano PGI
Barilla	Large Shells		15 min, al dente 14
Barilla	Medium Shells		9 min, al dente 8
La Molisana	Conchiglie Rigate	25	13 min
La Molisana	Conchigliette Rigate	56	10 min
La Molisana	Conchigliette	57	7 min
La Molisana	Conchigliette Integraliwhole wheat	57	7 min
La Molisana	Conchiglie Grandi N.313extra di lusso	313	14 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 conchiglie

37 conchiglie products are catalogued, most of them sold in France, United Kingdom, Germany. Of those, 6 are organic, 9 are made in Italy.

Brands: Alce Nero (2), Coop (2), Tesco (2), A Table (1), Aldi (1), Alnatura (1), Asda (1), Bonneterre (1), Coop Naturaplan (1), D Lis Food (1).

No conchiglie? Use these

Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.

Orecchiette

Hand-formed · Puglia

A smaller cup, the hand-made cousin

Pipe rigate

Tubes · All of Italy

A curved tube with a pinched end

Cavatappi

Tubes · All of Italy

A spiral with similar grip

Side by side

Easy to confuse with

Conchiglioni

Short shapes · All of Italy

jumbo shell for stuffing

Orecchiette

Hand-formed · Puglia

small domed disc, rough on the outside, dragged over the board with a knife

Pipe rigate

Tubes · All of Italy

curved ridged tube pinched at one end, like a snail shell

Lumache

Tubes · All of Italy

snail-shell tube, curved and pinched at one end

Other names

Arselle, abissini, cappettine, cinesi rigati, cinesini, coccioline, conchigliette, margaritine, margherite rigate, mezzi cocci, seashells, shell pasta, shells, tofettine.

Sources

Shells no. 50, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Small Shells no. 52, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Conchiglie Rigate, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Shells, Garofalo (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Large Shells, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Medium Shells, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Conchiglie Rigate, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Conchigliette Rigate, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Conchigliette, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Conchigliette Integrali (whole wheat), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Conchiglie Grandi N.313 (extra di lusso), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Cook time: De Cecco no. 50 (shells): 12 min.
Photograph: Conchiglie rigate.png, 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.
Conchiglie, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Q19962, Wikidata
Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.