What to use instead of corzetti
The stamped relief holds a thin sauce in its grooves. Butter with pine nuts and marjoram is the tradition; a walnut sauce or a light pesto also works.
The closest swap: fazzoletti
Flat egg pasta for light sauces.
Corzetti is hand-formed, 40 to 50 mm long, 3 to 6 minutes in the pot. Fazzoletti sits in the sheets family and cooks in 2 to 3 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 corzetti, 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
Fazzoletti
Sheets · Liguria
Flat egg pasta for light sauces (chosen)
- 2
Farfalle
Short shapes · Lombardy
A flat dried shape (chosen)
- 3
Trofie
Hand-formed · Liguria
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 2 sauces
- 4
Capunti
Hand-formed · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough
- 5
Cavatelli
Hand-formed · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough
- 6
Gnocchi
Hand-formed · All of Italy
Same family, also solid, shares 2 sauces
- 7
Lorighittas
Hand-formed · Sardinia
Same family, also solid, also rough
- 8
Orecchiette
Hand-formed · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough
Match the sauce, not the look
Corzetti is listed against 4 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.
- Best pasta for butter and sage: Brown butter with crisped sage leaves. The filled-pasta sauce. It stays out of the way of the filling.
- Best pasta for walnut sauce: Salsa di noci: walnuts, bread, garlic, milk, marjoram. Ligurian. Pansotti is its pairing.
- 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 porcini: Fresh or dried porcini with butter, garlic, parsley, sometimes cream. Egg ribbons, tajarin, pappardelle.
Side by side
The measured difference between corzetti and each swap.