Tortiglioni
tor-tee-LYOH-nee
Medium tube with ridges that spiral around it.
12.5 mm across, 1.2 mm wall
Name. From tortiglione, a twist or spiral, from torcere, to twist.
What it is
Tortiglioni is a rigatoni whose ridges run in a spiral instead of straight down the tube, the mark of a die that turns the dough as it extrudes. It is a shade narrower than rigatoni and the twisted grooves give it a slightly different bite.
It is a southern shape and is used interchangeably with rigatoni in most recipes.
How to cook tortiglioni
12 to 14 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 9 minutes, fully cooked at 14.
9:00
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 tortiglioni. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 8 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
Spiral ridges hold sauce the same way straight ones do, so it takes ragu, sausage, tomato with pieces, and baked dishes. Most cooks treat it as rigatoni.
Pairs with: Meat ragu · Sausage ragu · Amatriciana · Baked (al forno) · Pomodoro
Classic plates: Tortiglioni al ragu, Tortiglioni al forno.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
3 brands, 5 product pages. Cook times run from 10 to 12 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 | Tortiglioni no. 23 | 23 | 11 min, al dente 9 | ||||
| Rummo | Elicoidali | 49 | 12 min | 44 mm | 11.5 mm | 1.25 to 1.6 mm | |
| Rummo | Elicoidaligluten-free | 49 | 10 min | 40 mm | 10.6 mm | 1.08 to 1.5 mm | |
| Rummo | Elicoidaliwhole wheat | 49 | 11 min | 41 mm | 11.3 mm | 1.2 to 1.53 mm | |
| Garofalo | Elicoidale | 34 | 12 min | Gragnano PGI · 454 g box |
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 tortiglioni
56 tortiglioni products are catalogued, most of them sold in Italy, France, Switzerland. Of those, 5 are gluten-free, 11 are organic, 13 are made in Italy.
Brands: Barilla (5), Carrefour (3), De Cecco (3), Armando (2), Chef Select (2), Gallo (2), Iper (2), Sigma (2), Agnesi (1), Arrighi (1).
No tortiglioni? 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
Elicoidali, elicoidali, rigatoni spiralati.
Sources
- Tortiglioni no. 23, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Elicoidali, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Elicoidali (gluten-free), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Elicoidali (whole wheat), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Elicoidale, Garofalo (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 23: 13 min.
- Photograph: Tortiglioni closeup.png, 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 169736, Pasta, dry, enriched; FDC 169737, Pasta, cooked, enriched, without added salt), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
- Tortiglioni, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q12056671, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.