Trottole
TROT-toh-leh
Spinning top, a ribbon wound around a central pin.
Name. Spinning tops.
What it is
Trottole are spinning tops: a wide ribbon wound in a spiral around a central rod so the piece flares like a top. It is a modern shape with a lot of surface.
It holds sauce in the coil and in the gaps between turns.
How to cook trottole
10 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
10:00
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 trottole. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 9 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 coiled ribbon takes cream and chunky sauces: sausage, mushrooms, a thick tomato, a vegetable ragu. It also works cold.
Pairs with: Cream sauce · Sausage ragu · Vegetable ragu · Pomodoro · Pasta salad
Classic plates: Trottole alla boscaiola, Trottole con salsiccia.
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 trottole
8 trottole products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, United Kingdom, Czech Republic. Of those, 2 are organic, 2 are made in Italy.
Brands: Dalla Costa (1), Sainsbury S (1), Aldi (1), Italiamo (1), Simply Balanced (1), Target Stores (1), Shoprite (1), Private Selection (1).
No trottole? 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
trottole pugliesi, spinning tops.
Sources
- Cook time: typical dried, brand pages.
- 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.
- Trottole, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.