Riccioli
Hollow cut with cylindrical ridges.
Name. Riccioli means curls. The name describes the loose spiral of each piece.
What it is
Riccioli are a dried short cut shaped as a loose, hollow spiral. Rummo lists its Riccioli n. 54 at 35 millimetres long and 5.5 millimetres across, with fine ridges on the wall. Garofalo's Riccioli n. 41 is 34 millimetres long and 1.35 millimetres thick. Garofalo draws it through bronze dies under the Pasta di Gragnano IGP mark. Both makers use durum wheat semolina only. The open spiral traps sauce between the folds. Rummo notes the shape is a favourite with children.
No fetched source gives a regional origin. Both leading makers work in Campania. Rummo suggests cold pasta salads with seasonal vegetables and rich creamy sauces with gorgonzola or burrata. Garofalo pairs the shape with friarielli, the Neapolitan broccoli rabe cooked in a pan. Rummo's United States listing sells the same cut as cavatappi.
How to cook riccioli
7 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
7:00
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 riccioli. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 6 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.
What it is served with
Pairs with: Pasta salad · Four cheese · Cream sauce · Cime di rapa
Classic plates: riccioli con friarielli.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
2 brands, 2 product pages. Cook times run from 7 to 11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rummo | Riccioli | 54 | 7 min | 35 mm | 5.5 mm | 1.15 to 1.42 mm |
| Garofalo | Riccioli n. 41 | 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.
No riccioli? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look.
Sources
- Riccioli, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Riccioli n. 41, Garofalo (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Rummo: Riccioli n. 54 (profile: origin, form, use)
- Garofalo: Riccioli n. 41 (profile: origin, form, use)
- Cook time: Rummo Riccioli: 7 min.
- Dimensions: the Rummo spec sheet, Riccioli. No box of ours has been measured yet.
- Photograph: Riccioli.jpg, Popo le Chien, CC0.
- 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.
- Riccioli (pasta), Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q109313057, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.