Tagliatelle
tah-lyah-TEL-leh
Flat egg ribbon, 8 mm wide by tradition.
8 mm wide, 0.8 mm thick
Name. From tagliare, to cut. The cut ones.
What it is
Tagliatelle is the egg ribbon of Bologna, cut from a hand-rolled sfoglia to a width the Bolognese chamber of commerce fixed in 1972 at eight millimetres cooked, with a golden ruler deposited as proof. In practice widths run from six to ten.
It is the only correct pasta for ragu alla bolognese, and it also carries the truffle and prosciutto sauces of Emilia. Dried tagliatelle is sold in nests and is thinner and firmer than the fresh.
How to cook tagliatelle
2 to 8 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
2:00
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 tagliatelle. 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
A wide porous egg ribbon holds a meat ragu on its surface and absorbs the fat, which is why Bologna refuses spaghetti for the same sauce. Butter, cream, mushrooms, and truffle behave the same way. Oil and seafood sauces are the wrong weight.
Pairs with: Ragu alla bolognese · Porcini · Butter and sage · Cream sauce · Alfredo
Classic plates: Tagliatelle al ragu, Tagliatelle ai funghi porcini, Tagliatelle al tartufo, Tagliatelle con prosciutto e piselli.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
2 brands, 5 product pages. Cook times run from 3 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 | Width or Ø | Wall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rummo | Tagliatellenests | 107 | 6 min | 6 mm | 1.05 mm |
| Rummo | Tagliatelle All'Uovoegg | 132 | 3 min | 6 mm | 0.8 mm |
| La Molisana | Tagliatelleartisan line | 103 | 9 min | ||
| La Molisana | Taglierini N.202 All'Uovoextra di lusso | 202 | 4 min | ||
| La Molisana | Tagliatelle N.203 All'Uovoextra di lusso | 203 | 4 min |
Nutrition
Per 100 g of fresh 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 | 288 kcal | 11.3 g | 54.7 g | g | 2.3 g | 26 mg | 3.4 mg |
| Cooked | 131 kcal | 5.2 g | 24.9 g | g | 1.1 g | 6 mg | 1.1 mg |
One portion. 100 g dry becomes about 220 g cooked, 288 kcal and 11 g of protein. Pasta takes on 2.2 times its weight in the pot.
Who makes tagliatelle
702 tagliatelle products are catalogued, most of them sold in France, Spain, Germany. Of those, 157 are organic, 47 are made in Italy.
Brands: Lustucru (20), Auchan (17), Carrefour (14), Barilla (13), Fiorini (13), Boni (9), Combino (9), Lustucru Selection (9), Coop (8), Pates Fabre (8).
No tagliatelle? 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
Tagliarelli, bardele (Lombardia), fettucce romane, fettuccelle, fettuccine (Lazio), fiadi, fresine, lesagnetes (Veneto), nastri, pincinelle (Colonna), reginelle, taddarini (Sardinia), tagghiarini (Sicily), tagliatelle all'uovo, tagliatelle smalzade (Trentino), taglierini, tagliolini.
Read more
Semolina versus egg dough: the two doughs of Italian pasta
The difference between durum semolina pasta and egg pasta: flour, water, eggs, where each is made, how each cooks, and which sauces each dough wants.
Fresh versus dried pasta: neither is better, they are different foods
The difference between fresh and dried pasta: dough, texture, cook time, storage, and which shapes and sauces belong to each.
Sources
- Tagliatelle (nests), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Tagliatelle All'Uovo (egg), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Tagliatelle (artisan), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Taglierini N.202 All'Uovo (extra di lusso), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Tagliatelle N.203 All'Uovo (extra di lusso), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: fresh egg 2 to 4 min; dried nests 6 to 8 min.
- Photograph: Tagliatelles2.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 169727, Pasta, fresh-refrigerated, plain, as purchased; FDC 169728, Pasta, fresh-refrigerated, plain, cooked), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
- Tagliatelle, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q20044, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.