Tubetti
too-BET-tee
Small straight tube, the soup tube of Naples.
6 mm across, 1 mm wall
Name. Little tubes. Tubettini are smaller.
What it is
Tubetti is the Neapolitan small tube, about a centimetre long and half as wide, the same thing as ditali on most shelves. Naples cooks it in pasta e patate, pasta e fagioli, and with mussels or beans.
Tubettini is the soup grade, a size down.
How to cook tubetti
8 to 10 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 tubetti. 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
As ditali: soups, bean and potato stews, a thick tomato. Naples also serves it with mussels in a light broth, tubetti e cozze.
Pairs with: Pasta e fagioli · Minestrone · Pasta e ceci · Vongole · Pomodoro
Classic plates: Pasta e patate, Tubetti e cozze, Pasta e fagioli.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
3 brands, 6 product pages. Cook times run from 9 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 | Tubetti no. 62 | 62 | 10 min | ||||
| Rummo | Tubetti Regina | 29 | 9 min | 6.05 mm | 5.2 mm | 1.3 mm | |
| Rummo | Tubetti Zita | 31 | 10 min | 11 mm | 8.8 mm | 1.4 mm | |
| Rummo | Tubetti Rigati | 72 | 12 min | 9.5 mm | 8.6 mm | 1.35 to 1.65 mm | |
| Rummo | Tubetti Rigatiwhole wheat | 72 | 11 min | 9.5 mm | 8.6 mm | 1.35 to 1.65 mm | |
| Mancini | Tubetti | 9 min, al dente 7 | 7 mm | 10.2 mm | dried 22 h at 36 to 55 °C |
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 tubetti
5 tubetti products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, Italy, Germany. Of those, 1 are gluten-free, 1 are organic.
Brands: F Lli de Cecco di Filippo Fara S Martino S P A (1), F Lli de Cecco di Filippo Fara San Martino Spa (1), Granoro (1), Dalla Costa (1), Rummo Lenta Lavorazione (1), Rummo (1).
No tubetti? 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
tubettini, tubetti rigati, ditali.
Sources
- Tubetti no. 62, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Tubetti Regina, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Tubetti Zita, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Tubetti Rigati, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Tubetti Rigati (whole wheat), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Tubetti, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 62: 10 min.
- 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.
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.