Linguine
lin-GWEE-neh
Flattened oval strand, wider than thick.
3 mm wide, 1.4 mm thick
Name. From lingua, tongue, with the diminutive -ine. Little tongues.
What it is
Linguine is spaghetti pressed flat: an oval strand about three millimetres wide and a millimetre and a half thick. It comes from Liguria, where it is a cousin of trenette and bavette, and it has become the standard long shape for seafood everywhere.
The flat section gives more surface than spaghetti for the same weight, which is why oily and thin sauces cling better to it.
How to cook linguine
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 linguine. 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
More surface, still no cavity. Linguine wants sauces that coat: clams, pesto, oil and garlic, a light seafood tomato. The wide face carries a thin emulsion better than a round strand.
Pairs with: Vongole · Pesto alla genovese · Frutti di mare · Aglio e olio · Marinara · Lemon and butter
Classic plates: Linguine alle vongole, Linguine al pesto, Linguine ai frutti di mare, Linguine allo scoglio.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
6 brands, 14 product pages. Cook times run from 7 to 12 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 | Linguine no. 7 | 7 | 12 min, al dente 10 | ||||
| De Cecco | Linguine Fini no. 8 | 8 | 8 min, al dente 6 | ||||
| Rummo | Linguine | 13 | 10 min | 260 mm | 3.3 mm | 1.55 mm | |
| Rummo | Linguinegluten-free | 13 | 11 min | 250 mm | 2.95 mm | ||
| Rummo | Linguinewhole wheat | 13 | 10 min | 260 mm | 3.3 mm | ||
| Garofalo | Linguine | 12 | 11 min | Gragnano PGI | |||
| Mancini | Linguine | 9 min, al dente 7 | 260 mm | 1.36 mm | dried 23 h at 36 to 50 °C | ||
| Barilla | Linguine | 10 min, al dente 9 | |||||
| Barilla | Linguine Fini | 7 min, al dente 6 | |||||
| Barilla | Linguinewhole wheat | 8 min, al dente 7 | |||||
| La Molisana | Linguine Pasta | 6 | 12 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Mezze Linguine | 7 | 7 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Linguine N.6extra di lusso | 6 | 12 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Linguine Integraliwhole wheat | 6 | 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 linguine
306 linguine products are catalogued, most of them sold in France, Italy, Germany. Of those, 58 are organic, 17 are Gragnano PGI, 39 are made in Italy.
Brands: Barilla (14), De Cecco (9), Rummo (8), Garofalo (7), Panzani (7), La Molisana (5), Lustucru (5), Alnatura (4), Antica Pasteria (4), Auchan (4).
No linguine? 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
Bavettine, bavette fini, bavettine, linguettine, linguine fini, radichini.
Sources
- Linguine no. 7, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine Fini no. 8, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine (gluten-free), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine (whole wheat), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine, Garofalo (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine Fini, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine (whole wheat), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine Pasta, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Mezze Linguine, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine N.6 (extra di lusso), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Linguine Integrali (whole wheat), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 7: 11 min, al dente 9.
- Photograph: Linguine2.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.
- Linguine, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q20035, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.