Pipe rigate
PEE-peh ree-GAH-teh
Curved ridged tube pinched at one end, like a snail shell.
13.5 mm across, 1.1 mm wall
Name. Pipes, for the bent tube. Lumache, snails, is the other name for the same shape.
What it is
Pipe rigate is a short ridged tube bent into a curve and pinched almost shut at one end, so it looks like a pipe or a snail shell. Lumache is the same shape under the snail name, and lumaconi the giant grade for stuffing.
The pinched end turns the tube into a cup that traps sauce.
How to cook pipe rigate
10 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 8 minutes, fully cooked at 12.
8:00
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 pipe rigate. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 7 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 ridged cup with a bore, so it captures cream, cheese, and sauces with small pieces: peas and ham, sausage crumbs, a vegetable ragu, a thick tomato.
Pairs with: Cream sauce · Sausage ragu · Vegetable ragu · Pomodoro · Four cheese
Classic plates: Pipe rigate alla boscaiola, Pipe con salsiccia e panna.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
1 brand, 1 product page.
| Brand | Product | Cook |
|---|---|---|
| Barilla | Pipette | 9 min, al dente 8 |
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 pipe rigate
14 pipe rigate products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, Italy, Germany. Of those, 3 are organic.
Brands: Barilla (3), Carrefour (2), Sainsbury S (1), Nuh Un Ankara Markanasi (1), Novella (1), Pasta Reggia (1), Jumbo (1), Fiorini (1), Alnatura (1), Alnatura Gmbh (1).
No pipe rigate? 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
pipe, pipette, lumache rigate.
Sources
- Pipette, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: typical dried, brand pages.
- Photograph: Pipe rigate.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.
- Pipe rigate, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q19385369, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.