What to use instead of lorighittas
A braided ring with a lot of surface, traditionally served with a chicken or rooster ragu, or a simple tomato and pecorino.
The closest swap: gemelli
A twisted pair of strands.
Lorighittas is hand-formed, 30 to 40 mm long, 8 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 lorighittas, 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 pair of strands (chosen)
- 2
Casarecce
Short shapes · Sicily
A rolled twist (chosen)
- 3
Cavatelli
Hand-formed · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 3 sauces
- 4
Orecchiette
Hand-formed · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 3 sauces
- 5
Strascinati
Hand-formed · Basilicata
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 3 sauces
- 6
Capunti
Hand-formed · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 2 sauces
- 7
Pizzarelle
Hand-formed · Lazio
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 2 sauces
- 8
Sagne 'ncannulate
Hand-formed · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 2 sauces
Match the sauce, not the look
Lorighittas is listed against 3 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.
- Best pasta for meat ragu: Any slow meat sauce with solids in it. It wants a shape with a cavity: a wide tube, a cup, or a broad ribbon.
- Best pasta for pomodoro: Tomato, olive oil, garlic or onion, basil. Smooth and light. Almost any shape works; the classic is spaghetti or penne.
- Best pasta for sausage ragu: Crumbled sausage, often with fennel, cooked in tomato or white wine. Orecchiette in Puglia, rigatoni everywhere else.
Side by side
The measured difference between lorighittas and each swap.