Spaghettoni

spah-get-TOH-nee

Long strands Campania

Round solid strand, over 2 mm across.

Cut end, to scale.
2.3 mm across

Name. Spaghetti with the augmentative -oni. Big strings.

How to cook spaghettoni: 12 to 15 minutes, with a timer

What it is

Spaghettoni is the thick end of the spaghetti family, over two millimetres across, with a long cook and a chew that holds up under a heavy dressing. Bronze-die artisan brands from Gragnano favour it because the rough thick strand shows off the pasta itself.

In Rome it has become the modern shape for cacio e pepe and carbonara, where the extra starch it releases helps the cheese emulsify.

How to cook spaghettoni

12 to 15 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.

Custom, minutes

12:00

Start when the water returns to the boil.

Water and salt

People

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 spaghettoni. 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.

How it holds sauce

A thick strand releases more starch and stays firm longer, so it suits the Roman cheese sauces that need starchy water to come together. It also stands up to guanciale and pepper without going limp.

Pairs with: Cacio e pepe · Carbonara · Gricia · Amatriciana

Classic plates: Spaghettoni cacio e pepe, Spaghettoni alla gricia.

By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets

4 brands, 8 product pages. Cook times run from 11 to 14 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
Rummo	Spaghetti Grossi	5	11 min	260 mm	2.05 mm
Rummo	Spaghettoni Grossi	220	13 min	260 mm	2.25 mm
Rummo	Spaghetti Grossiwhole wheat	5	11 min	260 mm	2.05 mm
Mancini	Spaghettoni		13 min, al dente 11	260 mm	2.5 mm
Barilla	Thick Spaghetti		12 min, al dente 11
La Molisana	Spaghetti Grossi	14	13 min
La Molisana	Spaghettone Grosso	230	13 min
La Molisana	Spaghettoni Ruvidi N.14extra di lusso	14	14 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 spaghettoni

8 spaghettoni products are catalogued, most of them sold in Switzerland, France, Germany. Of those, 1 are organic.

Brands: Barilla (2), Girolomoni (1), Giovanni Rana (1), Italiamo (1), Barilla Barilla G e R Fratelli Societa Per Azioni Via Mantova (1), 166 (1), 43122 Parma Italy (1), Rummo (1), Agnesi (1).

No spaghettoni? Use these

Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.

Spaghetti

Long strands · Campania

The standard strand, one or two minutes faster

Bucatini

Long strands · Lazio

Similar heft with a bore

Tonnarelli

Long strands · Lazio

A square fresh strand of the same weight, also Roman

Side by side

Easy to confuse with

Spaghetti

Long strands · Campania

round solid strand, about 2 mm across

Bucatini

Long strands · Lazio

thick round strand with a fine bore through the centre

Tonnarelli

Long strands · Lazio

square-section fresh egg strand

Other names

Spaghetti spessi, spaghetti grossi, thick spaghetti.

Bronze die versus Teflon: why the surface of dried pasta matters
What a bronze die does to the surface of pasta, why a rough shape holds sauce better, and how to tell a bronze-cut box from a Teflon one on the shelf.

Sources

Spaghetti Grossi, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghettoni Grossi, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti Grossi (whole wheat), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghettoni, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Thick Spaghetti, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti Grossi, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghettone Grosso, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghettoni Ruvidi N.14 (extra di lusso), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Cook time: typical dried, brand pages.
Photograph: Spaghettoni.jpg, Nnaluci, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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.
Spaghettoni, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.