Radiatori
rah-dee-ah-TOH-ree
Squat cylinder with deep fins, like a car radiator.
17.5 mm across
Name. Radiators. A twentieth-century industrial shape, named for the finned engine part.
What it is
Radiatori is a small ruffled cylinder with deep fins around it, so it looks like a car radiator. It is a pure machine shape from the twentieth century, with no regional home.
The fins give it more surface for its size than almost any other short pasta.
How to cook radiatori
10 to 12 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 radiatori. 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
Deep fins trap everything. Cheese sauces, cream, thick tomato, a chunky vegetable sauce, a cold dressing. It is one of the best shapes for a thick sauce that needs to cling.
Pairs with: Cream sauce · Mac and cheese · Vegetable ragu · Pomodoro · Pasta salad · Four cheese
Classic plates: Radiatori mac and cheese, Radiatori al ragu, Radiatori salad.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
4 brands, 5 product pages. Cook times run from 8 to 9 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 | Wall | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Cecco | Radiatori no.199 | 199 | ||||
| Rummo | Radiatori | 137 | 8 min | 25 mm | 1.3 mm | |
| Garofalo | Radiatori | 87 | 8 min | Gragnano PGI · 454 g box | ||
| La Molisana | Radiatori Pasta | 73 | 9 min | |||
| La Molisana | Radiatori Integraliwhole wheat | 73 | 8 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 radiatori
6 radiatori products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, Germany, Belgium. Of those, 1 are organic, 1 are Gragnano PGI.
Brands: Garofalo (3), Hofladen (1), World Finer Foods Inc (1), Brami (1).
No radiatori? 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
Marziani, radiatore, radiators.
Sources
- Radiatori no.199, De Cecco (catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Radiatori, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Radiatori, Garofalo (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Radiatori Pasta, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Radiatori Integrali (whole wheat), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 199: 11 min.
- Photograph: Radiatori2.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.
- Radiatori, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q1136833, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.