Mezzi bombardoni
Wide short tubes.
Name. Half-size bombardoni. The parent shape is named for the bombard, an early cannon.
What it is
Mezzi bombardoni are wide ridged tubes of dried semolina pasta, cut shorter than full bombardoni. Wikipedia describes the shape simply as wide short tubes. The ridges and the wide bore hold thick sauces. De Cecco sells the shape as number 228 in its Specialità range. Pastificio Graziano makes a bronze-die version that cooks in 12 to 13 minutes.
De Cecco describes bombardoni as a shape of southern Italy, common in Campania, Calabria, Sicily and Basilicata. The half-size cut is a variation on that family. The tubes suit tomato sauces and rich meat ragù. They also work in baked dishes with a meat or fish filling. De Cecco pairs the mezzi version with rocket, orange and bottarga.
How to cook mezzi bombardoni
12 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
12:00
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 mezzi bombardoni. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 11 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.
What it is served with
Pairs with: Meat ragu · Pomodoro · Baked (al forno) · Bottarga · Sausage ragu
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
1 brand, 1 product page.
| Brand | Product | Cook |
|---|---|---|
| Pastificio Graziano | Mezzi bombardoni rigati | 12 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.
No mezzi bombardoni? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look.
Sources
- Mezzi bombardoni rigati, Pastificio Graziano (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Wikipedia: List of pasta (profile: origin, form, use)
- Pastificio Graziano: Mezzi bombardoni rigati (profile: origin, form, use)
- De Cecco: Bombardoni Rigati n. 128 (profile: origin, form, use)
- De Cecco recipe: Mezzi bombardoni rigati with rocket, orange and botargo (profile: origin, form, use)
- Cook time: Pastificio Graziano Mezzi bombardoni rigati: 12 min.
- 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.
- Mezzi bombardoni, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.