Penne lisce
PEN-neh LEE-sheh
Smooth diagonal-cut medium tube.
10 mm across, 1.1 mm wall
Name. Penne with liscio, smooth.
What it is
Penne lisce is the smooth penne, the original form before ridged dies took over. Without ridges the tube is slicker and depends on the bore and a bronze-die surface to hold sauce. In Sicily and in parts of the north it is still the preferred penne.
Most of the world buys penne rigate. The smooth version cooks a touch more evenly and is favoured for baked dishes and for sauces that would clog ridges.
How to cook penne lisce
10 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 9 minutes, fully cooked at 12.
9:00
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 lisce. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 8 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
Without ridges, sauce clings less to the outside, so penne lisce suits smooth sauces that fill the bore: tomato, a light cream, the Sicilian Norma, or a baked dish where the cheese does the holding.
Pairs with: Pomodoro · Marinara · Norma · Baked (al forno) · Cream sauce
Classic plates: Penne lisce alla Norma, Penne lisce al pomodoro, Pasta al forno.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
4 brands, 5 product pages. Cook times run from 9 to 11 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 Lisce no. 40 | 40 | 11 min, al dente 9 | ||||
| Rummo | Penne Lisce | 59 | 10 min | 45 mm | 8.4 mm | 1.3 mm | |
| Mancini | Penne Lisce | 10 min, al dente 8 | 45 mm | 8.5 mm | dried 22 h at 36 to 55 °C | ||
| Mancini | Penne Lisce | 9 min, al dente 7 | 45 mm | 8.5 mm | |||
| La Molisana | Penne Lisce | 18 | 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 penne lisce
8 penne lisce products are catalogued, most of them sold in Switzerland, Italy, France. Of those, 1 are gluten-free, 1 are bronze die, 2 are made in Italy.
Brands: Barilla (3), De Cecco (1), Felicetti (1), Food Directions Inc (1), Pastificio G. Di Martino (1), Tinkyada (1), Voiello (1).
No penne lisce? 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
penne smooth, mostaccioli.
Sources
- Penne Lisce no. 40, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Lisce, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Lisce, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Lisce, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Penne Lisce, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 40: 11 min.
- 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.
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.