Pasta Database

What to use instead of mezze maniche

Short and wide, so each piece fills with sauce: carbonara, gricia, amatriciana, a sausage ragu. Also good in the oven and in a thick soup.

The closest swap: mezzi rigatoni

The same short wide tube.

Mezze maniche is tubes, 25 to 35 mm long, 11 to 13 minutes in the pot. Mezzi rigatoni sits in the tubes family and cooks in 11 to 13 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 mezze maniche, 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. 1
    Mezzi rigatoni, uncooked, on linen

    Mezzi rigatoni

    Tubes · All of Italy

    The same short wide tube (chosen)

  2. 2
    Rigatoni, uncooked, on linen

    Rigatoni

    Tubes · Lazio

    The full length (chosen)

  3. 3
    Paccheri, uncooked, on linen

    Paccheri

    Tubes · Campania

    Wider, smooth (chosen)

  4. 4
    Occhi di lupo, uncooked, on linen

    Occhi di lupo

    Tubes · Campania

    Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 3 sauces, close in size

  5. 5
    Lumache, uncooked, on linen

    Lumache

    Tubes · All of Italy

    Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 2 sauces, close in size

  6. 6
    Pennoni, uncooked, on linen

    Pennoni

    Tubes · All of Italy

    Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 2 sauces, close in size

  7. 7
    Pipe rigate, uncooked, on linen

    Pipe rigate

    Tubes · All of Italy

    Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 1 sauce, close in size

  8. 8
    Tortiglioni, uncooked, on linen

    Tortiglioni

    Tubes · Campania

    Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 3 sauces

Match the sauce, not the look

Mezze maniche is listed against 5 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.

  • Best pasta for carbonara: Egg yolk, pecorino, guanciale, pepper. A silky coating with crisp pieces of pork. Long strands or a ridged tube, both are Roman.
  • Best pasta for gricia: Guanciale, pecorino, pepper. Carbonara without the egg. It wants a rough tube or a wide strand that holds the fat.
  • Best pasta for amatriciana: Guanciale, tomato, pecorino, chili. A short cooked sauce with pieces in it. Bucatini in Rome, spaghetti in Amatrice.
  • 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 baked (al forno): Pasta finished in the oven with sauce and cheese, or stuffed and baked. It needs a sturdy shape that survives twice cooking.

Side by side

The measured difference between mezze maniche and each swap.

Mezze maniche vs Mezzi rigatoniMezze maniche vs RigatoniMezze maniche vs PaccheriMezze maniche vs Occhi di lupoMezze maniche vs Tortiglioni

Where to buy

Find a substitute for any shape · The full mezze maniche page