Tonnarelli
ton-nah-REL-lee
Square-section fresh egg strand.
2.5 mm square
Name. Roman name for spaghetti alla chitarra. Chitarra is the guitar-like frame of strings that cuts the sheet.
What it is
Tonnarelli is a square-section egg strand, cut by pressing a thick sheet through the wires of a chitarra. In Abruzzo the same pasta is spaghetti alla chitarra or maccheroni alla chitarra. Rome adopted it and made it the fresh shape for cacio e pepe.
The square section and the egg give it a rough, porous face and a good chew, so it takes a heavy dressing without going soft.
How to cook tonnarelli
3 to 5 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 11 minutes, fully cooked at 5.
11:00
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 tonnarelli. 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 porous square strand grips a cheese emulsion like nothing else, which is why Roman trattorias serve tonnarelli cacio e pepe. It also takes lamb ragu in Abruzzo and a light seafood sauce on the coast.
Pairs with: Cacio e pepe · Gricia · Meat ragu · Carbonara
Classic plates: Tonnarelli cacio e pepe, Spaghetti alla chitarra con ragu d'agnello, Tonnarelli alla gricia.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
4 brands, 9 product pages. Cook times run from 9 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 | Wall | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| De Cecco | Squared Spaghetti no. 413 | 413 | 13 min, al dente 11 | ||||
| Rummo | Spaghetti Alla Chitarra | 104 | 12 min | 260 mm | 2.15 mm | 2.1 mm | |
| Rummo | Spaghetti Grossi Quadrati | 221 | 12 min | 260 mm | 2.05 mm | ||
| Mancini | Chitarra | 10 min, al dente 8 | 260 mm | dried 30 h at 36 to 46 °C | |||
| Mancini | Spaghettoni Quadrati | 14 min, al dente 12 | 260 mm | ||||
| La Molisana | Spaghetto Quadrato | 1 | 13 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Spaghettino Quadrato | 11 | 9 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Spaghetto Quadrato N.1extra di lusso | 1 | 13 min | ||||
| La Molisana | Spaghetto Quadrato Integralewhole wheat | 1 | 12 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.
No tonnarelli? 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
spaghetti alla chitarra, maccheroni alla chitarra, chitarra, tonnarello.
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
- Squared Spaghetti no. 413, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Spaghetti Alla Chitarra, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Spaghetti Grossi Quadrati, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Chitarra, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Spaghettoni Quadrati, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Spaghetto Quadrato, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Spaghettino Quadrato, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Spaghetto Quadrato N.1 (extra di lusso), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Spaghetto Quadrato Integrale (whole wheat), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: fresh egg pasta.
- 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.
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.