Paccheri

PAK-keh-ree

Tubes Campania

Very wide smooth tube, collapses flat when cooked.

Cut end, to scale.
27.5 mm across, 1.4 mm wall

Name. From the Neapolitan pacchero, a slap, for the sound they make hitting the plate.

How to cook paccheri: 14 to 18 minutes, with a timer

What it is

Paccheri is the giant smooth tube of Naples, nearly three centimetres across and five long, so wide that it collapses into a flat sleeve when cooked. It is a Gragnano shape and is often bronze-cut, so its surface is matte and rough.

It is served with seafood ragu, with a slow Neapolitan meat sauce, or stuffed with ricotta and baked. The half-length version is mezzi paccheri, and the ridged one is paccheri rigati.

How to cook paccheri

14 to 18 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 14 minutes, fully cooked at 18.

Custom, minutes

14:00

Start when the water returns to the boil.

Water and salt

People

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 paccheri. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
Bite a piece at 13 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 huge bore traps whole pieces of squid, sausage, or braised meat and the flattened tube carries sauce on both faces. It wants a sauce with big pieces: seafood ragu, ragu napoletano, or a filling and the oven. A thin sauce leaves it empty.

Pairs with: Ragu napoletano · Frutti di mare · Baked (al forno) · Norma · Meat ragu

Classic plates: Paccheri al ragu napoletano, Paccheri con sugo di mare, Paccheri ripieni al forno, Paccheri alla genovese.

By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets

5 brands, 13 product pages. Cook times run from 12 to 16 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	Paccheri no. 125	125	16 min, al dente 14
De Cecco	Mezzi Paccheri no. 225	225	16 min, al dente 14
Rummo	Paccheriartisan line	111	13 min	42 mm	23 mm	1.55 mm
Rummo	Paccheri Rigatiartisan line	150	13 min	47 mm	25 mm	1.45 to 1.9 mm
Rummo	Mezzi Paccheri Rigatiartisan line	152	13 min	30 mm	25 mm	1.45 to 1.9 mm
Rummo	Paccherotti Lisciartisan line	168	12 min	38 mm	21 mm	1.45 mm
Rummo	Paccherotti Rigatiartisan line	195	12 min	38 mm	21 mm	1.25 to 1.6 mm
Garofalo	Schiaffoni	83	15 min				Gragnano PGI · 454 g box
Mancini	Paccheri		14 min, al dente 12	50 mm	30 mm		dried 23 h at 36 to 55 °C
Mancini	Mezzi Paccheri		14 min, al dente 12	30 mm	30 mm		dried 23 h at 36 to 55 °C
La Molisana	Paccheri Reali N.316extra di lusso	316	12 min
La Molisana	Paccarielli Rigati N.321extra di lusso	321	12 min
La Molisana	Paccheri Rigatiartisan line	321	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.

Who makes paccheri

18 paccheri products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, Italy, United Kingdom. Of those, 4 are organic, 1 are Gragnano PGI, 2 are made in Italy.

Brands: De Cecco (2), Despar (1), Spar (1), Partenope (1), Fratelli Mantova Fu Vincenzo (1), Fior Fiore (1), Coop (1), Casino Caprafico (1), La Molisana (1), Seggiano (1).

No paccheri? Use these

Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.

Calamarata

Tubes · Campania

A shorter wide tube, the same weight

Rigatoni

Tubes · Lazio

Narrower and ridged

Cannelloni

Tubes · Campania

For the stuffed and baked version

Side by side

Easy to confuse with

Calamarata

Tubes · Campania

wide short smooth ring, the shape of a squid ring

Rigatoni

Tubes · Lazio

wide ridged tube cut straight across

Cannelloni

Tubes · Campania

large smooth tube for stuffing, or a rolled sheet

Other names

Maniche di frate, bombaroni, maniche rigate, mezzi paccheri, paccheri rigati, rigatoncini, rigatoni, schiaffoni, tufoli rigati. Moccolotti in Marche and Umbria.

Bronze die versus Teflon: why the surface of dried pasta matters
What a bronze die does to the surface of pasta, why a rough shape holds sauce better, and how to tell a bronze-cut box from a Teflon one on the shelf.

Sources

Paccheri no. 125, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Mezzi Paccheri no. 225, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Paccheri (artisan), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Paccheri Rigati (artisan), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Mezzi Paccheri Rigati (artisan), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Paccherotti Lisci (artisan), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Paccherotti Rigati (artisan), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Schiaffoni, Garofalo (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Paccheri, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Mezzi Paccheri, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Paccheri Reali N.316 (extra di lusso), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Paccarielli Rigati N.321 (extra di lusso), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Paccheri Rigati (artisan), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Cook time: De Cecco no. 125: 16 min, al dente 14.
Photograph: Paccheri3.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.
Paccheri, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Q20023, Wikidata
Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.