Gemelli
jeh-MEL-lee
One strand folded and twisted on itself, like two strands entwined.
Name. Twins. The shape looks like two strands twisted together; it is actually one strand folded and twisted.
What it is
Gemelli looks like two spaghetti strands twisted around each other, but it is a single S-shaped strand twisted on itself, about four centimetres long. It is a modern extruded shape.
It is firm and springy and holds its shape cold, which makes it a pasta-salad favourite.
How to cook gemelli
9 to 11 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 10 minutes, fully cooked at 11.
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 gemelli. 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
The twist holds a light sauce in its groove without the deep pockets of fusilli, so it suits smoother dressings: pesto, oil and vegetables, a light tomato, a thin cream. Big pieces have nowhere to catch.
Pairs with: Pesto alla genovese · Pasta salad · Pomodoro · Vegetable ragu · Lemon and butter
Classic plates: Gemelli al pesto, Gemelli con zucchine, Gemelli salad.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
3 brands, 3 product pages. Cook times run from 8 to 13 minutes across brands, so read the box, not a rule.
| Brand | Product | No. | Cook |
|---|---|---|---|
| De Cecco | Gemelli no. 97 | 97 | 12 min, al dente 10 |
| Barilla | Gemelli | 13 min, al dente 12 | |
| La Molisana | Gemelli Pasta | 80 | 8 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 gemelli
18 gemelli products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, France, United Kingdom. Of those, 1 are organic.
Brands: DeLallo (2), Severino Homemade Pasta (2), Severino Pasta Mfg (2), Garofalo (1), Meijer (1), Catelli (1), Ronzoni (1), New World Pasta (1), Barilla (1), Barilla America Inc (1).
No gemelli? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Fusilli
Short shapes · Campania
short solid spiral, three blades twisted around a core
Casarecce
Short shapes · Sicily
short strip rolled into an S, with a groove down the middle
Cavatappi
Tubes · All of Italy
hollow ridged tube wound into a corkscrew
Strozzapreti
Short shapes · Emilia-Romagna
strip of dough rolled between the palms into a loose twist
Other names
twins.
Sources
- Gemelli no. 97, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Gemelli, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Gemelli Pasta, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 97: 10 min.
- Photograph: Gemelli.jpg, Fazal Majid, Public domain.
- 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.
- Gemelli pasta, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q1057975, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.