Trofie
TROH-fyeh
Thin twist rolled with the flat of the hand, pointed at both ends.
Name. From the Genoese strufuggiâ, to rub, for the rolling motion.
What it is
Trofie are the Ligurian twist: a small piece of dough rolled under the palm and dragged so it twists into a tight spiral with tapered ends, about three centimetres long. They come from Recco and the coast east of Genoa.
Trofie al pesto with potatoes and green beans is the dish. The pasta was traditionally made with chestnut flour in the hills.
How to cook trofie
8 to 11 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
8:00
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 trofie. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 7 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 tight rough twist made for pesto. The raw basil paste clings to the spiral, and the potato and beans cooked in the same water round the dish out. A walnut sauce or a light tomato also works.
Pairs with: Pesto alla genovese · Walnut sauce · Pomodoro · Vegetable ragu
Classic plates: Trofie al pesto, Trofie con fagiolini e patate, Trofie alla ligure.
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 trofie
14 trofie products are catalogued, most of them sold in Italy, United States, United Kingdom. Of those, 1 are organic, 3 are made in Italy.
Brands: Barilla (2), Meliora (1), Gr A M M (1), Eataly (1), Martimucci (1), Antico Pastificio Umbro (1), Pasta Fresca Rossi (1), Waitrose (1), Granda Tradizioni (1), Garofalo (1).
No trofie? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Casarecce
Short shapes · Sicily
short strip rolled into an S, with a groove down the middle
Gemelli
Short shapes · All of Italy
one strand folded and twisted on itself, like two strands entwined
Strozzapreti
Short shapes · Emilia-Romagna
strip of dough rolled between the palms into a loose twist
Busiate
Hand-formed · Sicily
long strip wound around a reed into a loose coil
Other names
Rechelline, trofie liguri, trofiette.
Sources
- Cook time: typical dried; fresh 4 to 6 min.
- Photograph: Trofie2.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 169736, Pasta, dry, enriched; FDC 169737, Pasta, cooked, enriched, without added salt), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
- Trofie, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q1055395, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.