What to use instead of calamarata
A wide ring with a big bore, so it takes a seafood sauce with pieces: squid, prawns, clams in a light tomato. Also a Neapolitan ragu. It is too big for thin oil dressings.
The closest swap: paccheri
The same tube at full length.
Calamarata is tubes, 20 to 28 mm long, 14 to 16 minutes in the pot. Paccheri sits in the tubes family and cooks in 14 to 18 minutes. Match the cook time first. A swap that is right in shape and wrong in time still ends up wrong on the plate.
Every swap for calamarata, ranked
A substitute must behave the same way with the sauce you are making. The ones marked as chosen are hand-picked. The rest score on family, cavity, surface, size, and shared sauces.
- 1
Paccheri
Tubes · Campania
The same tube at full length (chosen)
- 2
Mezze maniche
Tubes · All of Italy
A shorter ridged tube (chosen)
- 3
Anelli
Pastina · Sicily
A small smooth ring for lighter dishes (chosen)
- 4
Cannelloni
Tubes · Campania
Same family, also hollow, also smooth, shares 1 sauce, close in size
- 5
Candele
Tubes · Campania
Same family, also hollow, also smooth, shares 2 sauces
- 6
Ziti
Tubes · Campania
Same family, also hollow, also smooth, shares 2 sauces
- 7
Ditali
Tubes · Campania
Same family, also hollow, also smooth, shares 1 sauce
- 8
Macaroni
Tubes · Campania
Same family, also hollow, also smooth, shares 1 sauce
Match the sauce, not the look
Calamarata is listed against 3 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.
- Best pasta for frutti di mare: Mixed shellfish in a light tomato or white wine base. Linguine, spaghetti, or calamarata with its squid-ring shape.
- Best pasta for ragu napoletano: Whole cuts of meat braised for hours in tomato. The sauce dresses the pasta; the meat is the second course. Ziti and paccheri.
- Best pasta for pomodoro: Tomato, olive oil, garlic or onion, basil. Smooth and light. Almost any shape works; the classic is spaghetti or penne.
Side by side
The measured difference between calamarata and each swap.