What to use instead of spaghettini
Less mass per strand means less sauce per mouthful, so the sauce should be light and fast. Oil, garlic, chili, lemon, clams, cherry tomatoes. Cream and ragu drown it.
The closest swap: spaghetti
The same strand, a touch thicker.
Spaghettini is long strands, 250 to 260 mm long, 6 to 9 minutes in the pot. Spaghetti sits in the long strands family and cooks in 9 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 spaghettini, 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
Spaghetti
Long strands · Campania
The same strand, a touch thicker (chosen)
- 2
Capellini
Long strands · Campania
Thinner still, for the lightest sauces (chosen)
- 3
Vermicelli
Long strands · Campania
The same weight class in the Neapolitan naming (chosen)
- 4
Fedelini
Long strands · Liguria
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 3 sauces, close in size
- 5
Linguine
Long strands · Liguria
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 3 sauces, close in size
- 6
Trenette
Long strands · Liguria
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 2 sauces, close in size
- 7
Pici
Long strands · Tuscany
Same family, also solid, shares 2 sauces, close in size
- 8
Spaghettoni
Long strands · Campania
Same family, also solid, also smooth, close in size
Match the sauce, not the look
Spaghettini is listed against 5 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.
- Best pasta for aglio e olio: Garlic, olive oil, chili, parsley. The thinnest sauce there is. It needs a strand that it can coat, with nothing to hide in.
- Best pasta for vongole: Clams, garlic, white wine, parsley, olive oil. Thin and briny. Spaghetti or linguine; nothing that competes with the shell.
- Best pasta for lemon and butter: Butter, lemon zest and juice, parmesan, pasta water. Light and bright. Thin strands and delicate ribbons.
- 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 bottarga: Grated cured fish roe in olive oil. Salty and dry. Spaghetti or fregola.
Side by side
The measured difference between spaghettini and each swap.