Fusilli
foo-ZEEL-lee
Short solid spiral, three blades twisted around a core.
9 mm across
Name. From fuso, spindle. Hand-made fusilli were wound around a knitting needle, the ferretto.
What it is
Fusilli is a short solid spiral, about four centimetres long, extruded through a die that twists three fins around a centre. It began as a hand-rolled southern shape wound around a thin rod, fusilli al ferretto, which is hollow and longer; the dried supermarket version is a different, tighter corkscrew.
Rotini is the American name for the same shape, sometimes a tighter twist. Fusilli bucati is the hollow grade and fusilli lunghi the long one.
How to cook fusilli
9 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 9 minutes, fully cooked at 12.
9:00
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 fusilli. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 8 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 spiral grooves trap sauce along their whole length, so fusilli takes chunky and creamy sauces that a smooth shape sheds: pesto, a vegetable ragu, tomato with ricotta, a cold dressing. It is the default pasta salad shape.
Pairs with: Pesto alla genovese · Pasta salad · Vegetable ragu · Pomodoro · Tuna and tomato · Ricotta · Sausage ragu
Classic plates: Fusilli al pesto, Fusilli alla caprese, Pasta salad, Fusilli con salsiccia e friarielli.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
5 brands, 16 product pages. Cook times run from 8 to 15 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 | Fusilli no. 34 | 34 | 11 min, al dente 9 | ||||
| De Cecco | Fusilli Corti Bucati no. 98 | 98 | 15 min, al dente 13 | ||||
| Rummo | Fusilli | 48 | 8 min | 40 mm | 10.5 mm | 1.33 mm | |
| Rummo | Fusilligluten-free | 48 | 13 min | 43 mm | 10 mm | 1.6 mm | |
| Rummo | Fusilli Ai Cecilegume | 48 | 9 min | 40 mm | 10 mm | 1.4 mm | |
| Rummo | Fusilliwhole wheat | 48 | 8 min | 43 mm | 10.5 mm | 1.25 mm | |
| Rummo | Fusilliorganic | 48 | 8 min | 40 mm | 10.5 mm | 1.33 mm | |
| Rummo | Fusillottiartisan line | 155 | 13 min | 29 mm | 17.5 mm | 1.55 mm | |
| Garofalo | Fusilli | 63 | 10 min | Gragnano PGI · 454 g box | |||
| Mancini | Fusilli | 10 min, al dente 8 | 40 mm | 12 mm | dried 22 h at 36 to 55 °C | ||
| Mancini | Fusilliwhole wheat | 9 min, al dente 7 | 40 mm | 12 mm | |||
| La Molisana | Fusilli | 28 | 11 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Fusilli Integraliwhole wheat | 28 | 11 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Fusilli Biologiciorganic | 28 | 10 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Fusilli Con Lupinilegume | 8 min | |||||
| La Molisana | Fusilli Gluten Freegluten-free | 11 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 fusilli
154 fusilli products are catalogued, most of them sold in Germany, France, United Kingdom. Of those, 21 are gluten-free, 39 are organic, 5 are bronze die, 34 are made in Italy.
Brands: Barilla (7), Tesco (4), Aldi (4), Combino (4), Coop (3), Rewe Bio (3), Pastani (2), Dmbio (2), By Sainsbury S (2), Grand Italia (2).
No fusilli? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Rotini
Short shapes · United States
tight short spiral, the American fusilli
Cavatappi
Tubes · All of Italy
hollow ridged tube wound into a corkscrew
Gemelli
Short shapes · All of Italy
one strand folded and twisted on itself, like two strands entwined
Fusilli lunghi
Long strands · Campania
long hollow strand twisted into a loose spiral
Other names
Eliche, eliche, fusilli al ferretto, fusilli bucati, fusilli corti, girandole, rotini, spirali.
Sources
- Fusilli no. 34, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli Corti Bucati no. 98, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli (gluten-free), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli Ai Ceci (legume), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli (whole wheat), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli (organic), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusillotti (artisan), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli, Garofalo (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli (whole wheat), Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli Integrali (whole wheat), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli Biologici (organic), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli Con Lupini (legume), La Molisana (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Fusilli Gluten Free (gluten-free), La Molisana (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 34: 11 min, al dente 9.
- Photograph: Fusilli lunghi bucati.jpg, Nnaluci, CC BY-SA 3.0.
- 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.
- Fusilli, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q19966, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.