What to use instead of pennette
Small tubes take smooth and light sauces: tomato, a simple cream, pesto, an oil dressing for a cold salad. Chunks of meat or vegetable outsize the pasta.
The closest swap: penne
The full size.
Pennette is tubes, 30 to 40 mm long, 8 to 11 minutes in the pot. Penne sits in the tubes family and cooks in 10 to 12 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 pennette, 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
Penne
Tubes · Liguria
The full size (chosen)
- 2
Sedani
Tubes · All of Italy
A small curved ridged tube (chosen)
- 3
Ditali
Tubes · Campania
A short straight tube (chosen)
- 4
Cavatappi
Tubes · All of Italy
Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 3 sauces, close in size
- 5
Chifferi
Tubes · All of Italy
Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 3 sauces, close in size
- 6
Macaroni
Tubes · Campania
Same family, also hollow, shares 3 sauces, close in size
- 7
Pipe rigate
Tubes · All of Italy
Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 2 sauces
- 8
Tubetti
Tubes · Campania
Same family, also hollow, shares 2 sauces, close in size
Match the sauce, not the look
Pennette is listed against 6 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.
- 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 pesto alla genovese: Basil, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan, pecorino, olive oil. Raw and oily. Trofie and trenette are the Ligurian pairings.
- Best pasta for tuna and tomato: Canned tuna, tomato, garlic, capers. A pantry sauce. Short shapes and small tubes.
- Best pasta for pasta salad: Cooked, cooled pasta dressed with oil or mayonnaise and mixed with vegetables. Short shapes with folds that hold dressing.
- Best pasta for cream sauce: Panna with cheese, mushrooms, ham, or peas. Heavy and clinging. Ridges and cups keep it on the pasta.
- Best pasta for minestrone: A thick vegetable soup with beans and a small pasta added at the end. Ditalini, conchigliette, or anellini.
Side by side
The measured difference between pennette and each swap.