Perciatelli
per-chah-TEL-lee
Thick hollow strand, the Neapolitan bucatini.
Name. From perciare, Neapolitan for to pierce. Pierced strands.
What it is
Perciatelli is the Neapolitan name for a hollow strand, and in practice it is bucatini, sometimes a shade thicker. Some brands keep both names on separate boxes, with perciatelli the heavier of the two.
In Campania it carries the Sunday ragu and the fish sauces of the coast.
How to cook perciatelli
10 to 13 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
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 perciatelli. 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
As bucatini: a sauce with body that can fill the bore. Ragu napoletano, tomato with guanciale, sardines and fennel.
Pairs with: Ragu napoletano · Amatriciana · Pomodoro
Classic plates: Perciatelli al ragu, Perciatelli con le sarde.
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 perciatelli
4 perciatelli products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States.
Brands: Ronzoni (1), New World Pasta (1), Colavita (1), Severino Homemade Pasta (1), Severino Pasta Mfg (1).
No perciatelli? 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
Long Macaroni, Maccheroncelli, Maccheroncini, Mezzanelli, bucatini.
Sources
- Cook time: typical dried, brand pages.
- Photograph: Perciatelli.jpg, Antoinette Burnham, Public domain.
- 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.
- Perciatelli, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.