What to use instead of casarecce
A trough down the middle and a slight twist, so it carries pesto, ricotta, sausage crumbs, and a chunky vegetable sauce. In Sicily it takes pesto alla trapanese and the Norma.
The closest swap: gemelli
A twisted strand of similar size.
Casarecce is short shapes, 35 to 45 mm long, 9 to 12 minutes in the pot. Gemelli sits in the short shapes family and cooks in 9 to 11 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 casarecce, 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
Gemelli
Short shapes · All of Italy
A twisted strand of similar size (chosen)
- 2
Strozzapreti
Short shapes · Emilia-Romagna
A rolled strip, longer (chosen)
- 3
Busiate
Hand-formed · Sicily
The Sicilian hand-made coil (chosen)
- 4
Fusilli
Short shapes · Campania
Same family, also solid, shares 3 sauces, close in size
- 5
Gnocchetti sardi
Short shapes · Sardinia
Same family, also solid, shares 2 sauces, close in size
- 6
Foglie d'ulivo
Short shapes · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 1 sauce
- 7
Rotini
Short shapes · United States
Same family, also solid, shares 1 sauce, close in size
- 8
Vesuvio
Short shapes · Campania
Same family, also solid, shares 2 sauces
Match the sauce, not the look
Casarecce is listed against 5 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.
- Best pasta for pesto alla genovese: Basil, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan, pecorino, olive oil. Raw and oily. Trofie and trenette are the Ligurian pairings.
- Best pasta for pesto alla trapanese: Almonds, raw tomato, basil, garlic, pecorino. Sicilian pesto. Busiate is its shape; the coil holds the paste.
- Best pasta for sausage ragu: Crumbled sausage, often with fennel, cooked in tomato or white wine. Orecchiette in Puglia, rigatoni everywhere else.
- Best pasta for norma: Fried eggplant, tomato, ricotta salata, basil. Sicilian. It needs a wide tube or a short shape to carry the eggplant.
- Best pasta for ricotta: Fresh ricotta loosened with pasta water, with lemon, pepper, or spinach. Mild and creamy. Short shapes and ribbons.
Side by side
The measured difference between casarecce and each swap.