What to use instead of tortelli
Brown butter and parmesan for almost all of them. The Mantuan pumpkin tortello takes butter and sage; the Tuscan potato tortello takes a meat ragu.
The closest swap: ravioli
The general square parcel.
Tortelli is stuffed, 40 to 80 mm long, 3 to 6 minutes in the pot. Ravioli sits in the stuffed family and cooks in 3 to 6 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 tortelli, 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
Ravioli
Stuffed · All of Italy
The general square parcel (chosen)
- 2
Cappellacci
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
The Ferrara pumpkin parcel (chosen)
- 3
Tortelloni
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
The Bologna ricotta parcel (chosen)
- 4
Cappelletti
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 2 sauces
- 5
Culurgiones
Stuffed · Sardinia
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 2 sauces
- 6
Agnolotti
Stuffed · Piedmont
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 1 sauce
- 7
Caramelle
Stuffed · Emilia-Romagna
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 1 sauce
- 8
Casoncelli
Stuffed · Lombardy
Same family, also solid, also smooth, shares 1 sauce
Match the sauce, not the look
Tortelli is listed against 3 sauces. Pick the swap that holds the one you are cooking.
- Best pasta for butter and sage: Brown butter with crisped sage leaves. The filled-pasta sauce. It stays out of the way of the filling.
- 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 pomodoro: Tomato, olive oil, garlic or onion, basil. Smooth and light. Almost any shape works; the classic is spaghetti or penne.
Side by side
The measured difference between tortelli and each swap.