What to use instead of testaroli
A porous griddled sheet soaks up sauce. Pesto is the tradition; olive oil and pecorino is the older, plainer dressing.
The closest swap: fazzoletti
A fresh sheet for pesto.
Testaroli is sheets, 40 to 60 mm long, 1 to 2 minutes in the pot. Fazzoletti sits in the sheets family and cooks in 2 to 3 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 testaroli, 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
Fazzoletti
Sheets · Liguria
A fresh sheet for pesto (chosen)
- 2
Trofie
Hand-formed · Liguria
The Ligurian pesto shape (chosen)
- 3
Lasagne
Sheets · Emilia-Romagna
Same family, also solid, shares 1 sauce
- 4
Foglie d'ulivo
Short shapes · Puglia
Also solid, also rough, shares 2 sauces
- 5
Bigoli
Long strands · Veneto
Also solid, also rough, shares 1 sauce
- 6
Casarecce
Short shapes · Sicily
Also solid, also rough, shares 1 sauce
- 7
Corzetti
Hand-formed · Liguria
Also solid, also rough, shares 1 sauce
- 8
Pici
Long strands · Tuscany
Also solid, also rough, shares 1 sauce
Match the sauce, not the look
Testaroli is listed against 2 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.
- 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 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.
Side by side
The measured difference between testaroli and each swap.