What to use instead of rigatoni
The widest bore of the everyday tubes, so pieces of sausage, eggplant, or braised meat ride inside it. The ridges hold sauce and grated cheese on the outside. The square-cut ends scoop. It wants amatriciana, a slow ragu, sausage, and baked dishes. Thin oil sauces drain straight through.
The closest swap: tortiglioni
The same tube with spiral ridges.
Rigatoni is tubes, 45 to 60 mm long, 12 to 14 minutes in the pot. Tortiglioni sits in the tubes family and cooks in 12 to 14 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 rigatoni, 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
Tortiglioni
Tubes · Campania
The same tube with spiral ridges (chosen)
- 2
Mezze maniche
Tubes · All of Italy
A shorter rigatoni (chosen)
- 3
Penne
Tubes · Liguria
Narrower, cut on the diagonal (chosen)
- 4
Mezzi rigatoni
Tubes · All of Italy
Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 5 sauces, close in size
- 5
Occhi di lupo
Tubes · Campania
Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 4 sauces, close in size
- 6
Pennoni
Tubes · All of Italy
Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 3 sauces, close in size
- 7
Lumache
Tubes · All of Italy
Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 2 sauces, close in size
- 8
Pipe rigate
Tubes · All of Italy
Same family, also hollow, also ridged, shares 1 sauce, close in size
Match the sauce, not the look
Rigatoni is listed against 8 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.
- 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 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 sausage ragu: Crumbled sausage, often with fennel, cooked in tomato or white wine. Orecchiette in Puglia, rigatoni everywhere else.
- Best pasta for norma: Fried eggplant, tomato, ricotta salata, basil. Sicilian. It needs a wide tube or a short shape to carry the eggplant.
- 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 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.
- Best pasta for vodka sauce: Tomato, cream, a splash of vodka, parmesan. Pink and smooth. Penne and rigatoni; the cream needs ridges to hold.
Side by side
The measured difference between rigatoni and each swap.