Penne
PEN-neh
Medium tube cut on the diagonal, ridged (rigate) or smooth (lisce).
10 mm across, 1.1 mm wall
Name. From penna, a quill pen. The diagonal cut is the nib. A Genoese pasta maker patented the cutting machine in 1865.
What it is
Penne is a medium tube cut on the bias so both ends come to a point, about five centimetres long and a centimetre across. Ridged penne, penne rigate, is the default on most shelves; smooth penne lisce is the older form and still preferred in parts of the north.
The diagonal cut came out of Liguria in the 1860s, when Giovanni Battista Capurro of San Martino d'Albaro patented a machine that cut the tubes without crushing them. Penne all'arrabbiata, with tomato and chili, is the dish most people learn it from.
How to cook penne
10 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 10 minutes, fully cooked at 12.
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 penne. 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 bore carries sauce inside and the ridges hold it outside, so penne takes any sauce with body: arrabbiata, vodka sauce, a vegetable ragu, cream with peas and ham, and the oven. The pointed ends spear rather than scoop, so very chunky sauces sit better in rigatoni.
Pairs with: Arrabbiata · Vodka sauce · Pomodoro · Cream sauce · Norma · Tuna and tomato · Baked (al forno) · Pasta salad
Classic plates: Penne all'arrabbiata, Penne alla vodka, Penne alla Norma, Penne al baffo, Baked penne.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
6 brands, 25 product pages. Cook times run from 8 to 15 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 | Penne Rigate no. 41 | 41 | 12 min, al dente 10 | ||||
| Rummo | Penne Rigate | 66 | 11 min | 48 mm | 8.2 mm | 1.3 to 1.6 mm | |
| Rummo | Penne Rigategluten-free | 66 | 12 min | 45 mm | 8.5 mm | 1.15 to 1.45 mm | |
| Rummo | Penne Rigate Ai Cecilegume | 66 | 8 min | 42 mm | 7.8 mm | 1.1 to 1.4 mm | |
| Rummo | Penne Rigatewhole wheat | 66 | 10 min | 47 mm | 8.2 mm | 1.2 to 1.5 mm | |
| Rummo | Penne Rigateorganic | 66 | 11 min | 48 mm | 8.2 mm | 1.3 to 1.6 mm | |
| Garofalo | Penne Ziti Rigate | 70 | 11 min | Gragnano PGI · 454 g box | |||
| Garofalo | Gluten Free Penne Rigategluten-free | 11 min | |||||
| Garofalo | Penne Ziti Rigatehigh protein | 9 min | |||||
| Mancini | Penne Rigate | 9 min, al dente 7 | 50 mm | 10.2 mm | dried 22 h at 36 to 55 °C | ||
| Mancini | Penne Rigatewhole wheat | 9 min, al dente 7 | 50 mm | 10.2 mm | dried 22 h at 36 to 55 °C | ||
| Barilla | Penne | 12 min, al dente 11 | |||||
| Barilla | Penne | 11 min, al dente 10 | |||||
| Barilla | Penne Rigateal bronzo | 15 min, al dente 13 | |||||
| Barilla | Pennegluten-free | 11 min, al dente 10 | |||||
| Barilla | Pennelegume | 9 min, al dente 7 | |||||
| Barilla | Pennelegume | 10 min, al dente 8 | |||||
| Barilla | Penneprotein | 10 min, al dente 8 | |||||
| Barilla | Pennewhole wheat | 10 min, al dente 9 | |||||
| La Molisana | Penne Rigate | 20 | 12 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Penne Rigate N.20extra di lusso | 20 | 11 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Penne Rigate Integraliwhole wheat | 20 | 11 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Penne Rigate Biologicheorganic | 20 | 11 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Penne Con Lupinilegume | 8 min | |||||
| La Molisana | Penne Rigate Gluten Freegluten-free | 10 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 penne
1244 penne products are catalogued, most of them sold in France, Italy, United States. Of those, 123 are gluten-free, 284 are organic, 149 are made in Italy.
Brands: Barilla (65), De Cecco (31), Combino (22), Panzani (21), Carrefour (20), Auchan (18), Garofalo (16), Rummo (14), Agnesi (12), La Molisana (11).
No penne? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Penne lisce
Tubes · Liguria
smooth diagonal-cut medium tube
Mostaccioli
Tubes · United States
smooth diagonal-cut tube, the American penne lisce
Ziti
Tubes · Campania
smooth medium tube, cut straight; sold long or cut
Rigatoni
Tubes · Lazio
wide ridged tube cut straight across
Sedani
Tubes · All of Italy
slightly curved narrow ridged tube
Pennette
Tubes · All of Italy
small penne, ridged, about 3.5 cm
Other names
Pennine, mezzani, mezze penne, mezze pennette lisce, mostaccioli, penne a candela, penne di natale/natalini, penne di ziti/zitoni, penne lisce, penne mezzane, penne regina, penne rigate, pennette, pennettine, pennoni, pennuzze.
Sources
- Penne Rigate no. 41, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate (gluten-free), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate Ai Ceci (legume), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate (whole wheat), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate (organic), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Ziti Rigate, Garofalo (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Gluten Free Penne Rigate (gluten-free), Garofalo (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Ziti Rigate (high protein), Garofalo (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate (whole wheat), Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate (al bronzo), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne (gluten-free), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne (legume), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne (legume), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne (protein), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne (whole wheat), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate N.20 (extra di lusso), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate Integrali (whole wheat), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate Biologiche (organic), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Con Lupini (legume), La Molisana (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Rigate Gluten Free (gluten-free), La Molisana (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 41 (penne rigate): 12 min, al dente 10.
- Photograph: Pennelisce closeup.png, 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.
- Penne, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q1063736, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.