Occhi di pernice
Very small rings of pasta.
Name. Partridge's eyes.
What it is
Occhi di pernice are very small rings of dried pasta, tiny discs with a hole. Wikipedia lists them among the smallest soup shapes. The Encyclopedia of Pasta treats the name as one of several for occhi di passero, the sparrow's-eye ring. Pastificio Ferrari makes an egg version, about 19 percent egg, that cooks in 6 to 7 minutes. De Cecco sells a semolina version as number 77.
No source names a region for the shape. It is a broth pasta. Ferrari labels it pastina per brodo. Serve it in chicken or beef broth, in a light vegetable soup, or in a creamy soup. The small rings cook fast and stay firm.
How to cook occhi di pernice
6 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
6:00
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 occhi di pernice. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Or cook it in the broth it will be served in, and do not drain it.
- Bite a piece at 5 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: In brodo · Minestrone
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
1 brand, 1 product page.
| Brand | Product | Cook |
|---|---|---|
| Pastificio Ferrari | Occhi di pernice | 6 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 occhi di pernice? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look.
Other names
occhi di passero.
Sources
- Occhi di pernice, Pastificio Ferrari (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Pastificio Ferrari: Occhi di pernice (profile: origin, form, use)
- Encyclopedia of Pasta (Zanini De Vita) via ckbk: Occhi di passero (profile: origin, form, use)
- IM.A.: De Cecco Occhi di pernice n.77 (profile: origin, form, use)
- Wikipedia: List of pasta (profile: origin, form, use)
- Cook time: Pastificio Ferrari Occhi di pernice: 6 min.
- Photograph: Occhip.jpg, Elcochan (talk) (Uploads), CC0.
- 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.
- Occhi di pernice (pasta), Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.