Pizzoccheri
pit-TSOK-keh-ree
Short thick grey-brown buckwheat ribbon.
12.5 mm wide, 2.5 mm thick
Name. Uncertain. Possibly from pizzo, a piece, or from the Lombard bizzo, a mouthful.
What it is
Pizzoccheri are the buckwheat ribbons of the Valtellina in the Lombard Alps, made from about four parts buckwheat to one part wheat flour and cut short and thick. The colour is grey-brown and the flavour is nutty.
There is one dish. Pizzoccheri alla valtellinese layers the pasta with cabbage, potatoes, Casera cheese, and butter cooked with garlic and sage. It is mountain food.
How to cook pizzoccheri
8 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
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 pizzoccheri. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Fresh pasta has no dry core. It is done when it is tender, not when it resists.
- 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
Buckwheat is crumbly and earthy, so the shape is built for one thing: butter, melting alpine cheese, and vegetables cooked in the same pot. It does not take tomato or oil sauces.
Pairs with: Butter and sage · Four cheese
Classic plates: Pizzoccheri alla valtellinese.
Who makes pizzoccheri
3 pizzoccheri products are catalogued, most of them sold in Italy, Switzerland. Of those, 1 are organic, 1 are Gragnano PGI, 1 are made in Italy.
Brands: Bonetti (1), Bosco (1), Pastificio Annoni (1).
No pizzoccheri? 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
Fugascion, pizzoccheri della Valtellina, pizzocher di Tei, pizzocheri.
Read more
Sources
- Cook time: fresh or dried, by maker.
- Photograph: Pizzochiero.jpg, Popo le Chien, CC0.
- Open Food Facts (products, brands, labels), Open Database License, read on 2026-08-25.
- Pizzoccheri, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q20042, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.