What to use instead of pizzarelle
Thick and chewy: beans, a tomato with pecorino, a sausage sauce.
The closest swap: pici
The Tuscan thick strand, cut short.
Pizzarelle is hand-formed, 30 to 50 mm long, 5 to 8 minutes in the pot. Pici sits in the long strands family and cooks in 4 to 8 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 pizzarelle, 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
Pici
Long strands · Tuscany
The Tuscan thick strand, cut short (chosen)
- 2
Maltagliati
Ribbons · Emilia-Romagna
Short irregular pieces (chosen)
- 3
Capunti
Hand-formed · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 3 sauces, close in size
- 4
Cavatelli
Hand-formed · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 2 sauces, close in size
- 5
Sagne 'ncannulate
Hand-formed · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 1 sauce, close in size
- 6
Lorighittas
Hand-formed · Sardinia
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 2 sauces
- 7
Malloreddus
Hand-formed · Sardinia
Same family, also solid, shares 2 sauces, close in size
- 8
Orecchiette
Hand-formed · Puglia
Same family, also solid, also rough, shares 2 sauces
Match the sauce, not the look
Pizzarelle is listed against 3 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.
- Best pasta for pasta e fagioli: Beans, soffritto, a little tomato, and small pasta cooked in the soup. Ditalini, tubetti, or broken spaghetti.
- 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 pizzarelle and each swap.