Rombi
Rhombus-shaped ribbons.
Name. Rombi is the plural of rombo, a rhombus. The name describes the diamond cut.
What it is
Rombi are flat diamonds of pasta. In the home tradition they are sagne: a thin sheet of semolina dough cut on the diagonal into lozenges. The dried version from De Cecco, Rombi n. 121, keeps the diamond outline and adds rippled edges on two sides. It is drawn through bronze dies from durum wheat semolina and dried slowly for nine hours. The rippled edges trap thin sauces and also carry heavier toppings.
De Cecco places the shape in the peasant cooking of Abruzzo, where it was common in the mountain districts. The maker pairs it with fish sauces, with chicken, duck or lamb sauces, with meat ragù and tomato, and with legume soups. Rombi need frequent stirring in the pot, because the flat pieces stick to each other.
How to cook rombi
12 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
12:00
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 rombi. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 11 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: Meat ragu · Pomodoro · Pasta e fagioli · Pasta e ceci · Frutti di mare
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
1 brand, 1 product page.
| Brand | Product | Cook |
|---|---|---|
| De Cecco | Rombi n. 121 | 12 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 rombi? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look.
Sources
- Rombi n. 121, De Cecco (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- De Cecco shop: Rombi n. 121 (profile: origin, form, use)
- Delighted Cooking: What is rombi pasta? (profile: origin, form, use)
- Wikipedia: List of pasta (profile: origin, form, use)
- Cook time: De Cecco Rombi n. 121: 12 min.
- Photograph: Rombi pasta.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.
- Rombi, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q58898267, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.