Farfalle
far-FAL-leh
Rectangle of pasta pinched in the middle into a bow, with crimped edges.
Name. Butterflies. Bow ties in English.
What it is
Farfalle are rectangles of pasta, often with fluted edges, pinched in the middle so they open like a bow tie or a butterfly. The shape is from Lombardy and Emilia, where they were cut from egg sheet at home. Dried farfalle is semolina.
The pinch is the problem. The centre stays firm while the wings soften, so farfalle is never quite evenly cooked. Farfalline is the small grade for soup.
How to cook farfalle
10 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 11 minutes, fully cooked at 12.
11:00
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 farfalle. 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
The wings are flat and the pinch is dense, so farfalle does best with sauces that coat rather than fill: cream with peas and salmon, a light tomato, pesto, a cold dressing. Chunky sauces fall off the wings.
Pairs with: Cream sauce · Pesto alla genovese · Pasta salad · Tuna and tomato · Pomodoro · Lemon and butter
Classic plates: Farfalle al salmone, Farfalle con piselli e panna, Farfalle pasta salad, Farfalle al pesto.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
5 brands, 9 product pages. Cook times run from 8 to 14 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 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Cecco | Farfalle no. 93 | 93 | 13 min, al dente 11 | ||||
| Rummo | Farfalle | 85 | 12 min | 33 mm | 24 mm | 1.35 mm | |
| Rummo | Farfallewhole wheat | 85 | 12 min | 33 mm | 24 mm | 1.3 mm | |
| Garofalo | Farfalle | 78 | 14 min | 454 g box | |||
| Garofalo | Gluten Free Farfallegluten-free | 8 min | |||||
| Barilla | Farfalle | 12 min, al dente 11 | |||||
| Barilla | Farfalleprotein | 11 min, al dente 9 | |||||
| La Molisana | Farfalle Rigate Pasta | 66 | 10 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Farfalle Rigate Integraliwhole wheat | 66 | 10 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 farfalle
137 farfalle products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, Germany, Italy. Of those, 22 are organic, 1 are Gragnano PGI, 2 are bronze die, 12 are made in Italy.
Brands: Barilla (11), Reggano (5), Meijer (3), Garofalo (2), Carrefour (2), Rummo (2), Racconto (2), Trader Joe's (2), Combino (2), De Cecco (2).
No farfalle? 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
bow tie pasta, bow ties, farfalline, farfalloni, fiocconi, fiochetti, galla genovese, nocchette (Apulia and Abruzzo), strichetti, strichetti (Modena).
Sources
- Farfalle no. 93, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Farfalle, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Farfalle (whole wheat), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Farfalle, Garofalo (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Gluten Free Farfalle (gluten-free), Garofalo (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Farfalle, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Farfalle (protein), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Farfalle Rigate Pasta, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Farfalle Rigate Integrali (whole wheat), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 93: 11 min.
- Photograph: Farfalle simple.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.
- Farfalle, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q19952, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.