Conchiglioni
kon-kee-LYOH-nee
Jumbo shell for stuffing.
Name. Conchiglie with the augmentative -oni. Big shells.
What it is
Conchiglioni are jumbo shells, five or six centimetres long, made for stuffing. They are boiled, filled with ricotta and spinach or with meat, and baked under tomato or bechamel.
In the United States they are stuffed shells; in Italy conchiglioni ripieni.
How to cook conchiglioni
13 to 16 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 10 minutes, fully cooked at 16.
10:00
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 conchiglioni. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 9 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 container for a filling. The sauce goes over the top and must be smooth enough to bake in: tomato, bechamel, or both.
Pairs with: Baked (al forno) · Pomodoro · Cream sauce · Meat ragu
Classic plates: Stuffed shells, Conchiglioni ripieni di ricotta e spinaci, Conchiglioni al forno.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
4 brands, 4 product pages. Cook times run from 12 to 15 minutes across brands, so read the box, not a rule.
| Brand | Product | No. | Cook | Wall | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Cecco | Conchiglioni Rigati no. 126 | 126 | 12 min, al dente 10 | ||
| Rummo | Conchiglioni Rigatiartisan line | 147 | 13 min | 1.4 to 1.8 mm | |
| Garofalo | Conchiglioni | 15 min | Gragnano PGI · 454 g box | ||
| La Molisana | Conchiglioniartisan line | 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 conchiglioni
7 conchiglioni products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, Albania, Argentina. Of those, 2 are organic, 1 are made in Italy.
Brands: Divella (1), Seggiano (1), Di Martino de Gmhb (1), Tontillo (1).
No conchiglioni? 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
jumbo shells, stuffed shells, conchiglioni rigati.
Sources
- Conchiglioni Rigati no. 126, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Conchiglioni Rigati (artisan), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Conchiglioni, Garofalo (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Conchiglioni (artisan), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 126: 14 min.
- Photograph: Conchiglioni2.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.
- Conchiglioni, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q48405301, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.