Pennoni
pen-NOH-nee
Large penne, ridged, 1.5 cm across.
14.5 mm across, 1.3 mm wall
Name. Penne with the augmentative -oni. Big quills.
What it is
Pennoni is the large grade of penne, about six centimetres long and a centimetre and a half wide, with the same diagonal cut. It fills the same role as rigatoni with a pointed end.
It is a shape for heavy sauces and baked dishes, where a bigger bore holds more ragu and cheese.
How to cook pennoni
12 to 14 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 10 minutes, fully cooked at 14.
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 pennoni. 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
A wide bore and long ridges, so it takes ragu, sausage, cream with mushrooms, and the oven. Thin sauces drain out of it.
Pairs with: Meat ragu · Sausage ragu · Baked (al forno) · Cream sauce
Classic plates: Pennoni al ragu, Pennoni al forno.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
3 brands, 6 product pages. Cook times run from 10 to 13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Cecco | Pennoni no. 38 | 38 | 12 min, al dente 10 | |||
| Rummo | Pennotti Rigati | 62 | 13 min | 60 mm | 14 mm | 1.35 to 1.65 mm |
| La Molisana | Pennoni Rigati | 21 | 10 min | |||
| La Molisana | Pennoni Lisci | 33 | 10 min | |||
| La Molisana | Pennoni Rigati N.21extra di lusso | 21 | 12 min | |||
| La Molisana | Pennoni Rigati Integraliwhole wheat | 21 | 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 pennoni
6 pennoni products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, United Kingdom. Of those, 1 are organic, 2 are made in Italy.
Brands: Giant (1), Tantillo (1), Waitrose (1), Dalla Costa (1).
No pennoni? 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
pennoni rigati, penne giganti.
Sources
- Pennoni no. 38, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Pennotti Rigati, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Pennoni Rigati, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Pennoni Lisci, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Pennoni Rigati N.21 (extra di lusso), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Pennoni Rigati Integrali (whole wheat), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 38: 13 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.