We are all familiar with pasta. Whether your go-to weeknight meal is a linguine aglio olio or you consistently order squid ink spaghetti when dining out, pasta is one of the most versatile foods out there.
In recent times, less popular pasta shapes have been on the rise from bucatini getting its moment in the spotlight to rigatoni shoving penne out of most noodle fiends’ rotations.
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We’re taking a look at eight of the most offbeat pasta shapes that you can use to free you from your rotini routine.
Cavatappi
Mac and cheese made with cavatappi (Photo: Instagram / @baltaire)
A hybrid of two popular shapes, cavatappi brings together the functionality of macaroni and the whimsy of fusilli. A hollow, corkscrew-shaped pasta, cavatappi is to macaroni what bendy straws are to regular straws. Created by Barilla in the 1970s, this particular shape is best served smothered in sauce or as a pasta salad.
Campanelle
A single campanelle noodle (Photo: Instagram / @dipasquales_italian_market)
Campanelle translates to bellflowers or little bells in Italian, which makes sense when looking at the near-abstract form this pasta shape takes. This shape is known for its thin, petal-like edges but hollow centre—the perfect vessel for sauce.
See also: How to pair pasta shapes with the right sauce
Often paired with thicker, cream-based sauces, campenelle is just as versatile as penne, able to be served with tomato-based or meat-forward accompaniments.
Strozzapreti
Hand-rolled strozzapreti noodles (Photo: Instagram / @cademezzamig)
A longer and thinner form of cavatelli, strozzapreti is a hand-rolled pasta that gets its rustic shape from a thin strip of dough rolled onto itself, almost like a croissant. Several regions in Italy are home to different preparations of strozzapreti but this shape works well with hearty, chunky sauces or traditional pomodoro.
Malfaldine
Uncooked malfaldine (Photo: Instagram / @dipasquales_italian_market)
Reminiscent of thinly sliced lasagna sheets, malfaldine is known for its ruffled edges. Translating to ‘little queen’, this shape was invented to pay tribute to Mafalda of Savoy, daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. These ribbon-like noodles shaped similarly to pappardelle cling excellently onto light or heavy sauces.
Fusilli col buco
A packet of fusilli col buco (Photo: Instagram / @santorositaliandeli)
Much like cavatappi, fusilli col buco unites the best aspects of two popular shapes into one type of noodle. Tubular like bucatini and spiral-shaped like fusilli, this unique shape is extremely versatile and great at trapping sauce, making it a good option when seeking to elevate a pesto or hearty ragout.
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Malloreddus
Malloreddus or Sardinian gnocchi (Photo: Instagram / @geekybakers)
Known as Sardinian gnocchi, malloreddus is a shell-like pasta shape with deep grooves perfect for sauce to cling onto. One of the oldest forms of pasta from Sardinia, it is most traditionally served in a ragout Sardinian sausage, tomato, and saffron.
Radiatori
Portions of uncooked radiatori (Photo: Instagram / @madebypaste)
Inspired by a piece of machinery, radiatori resembles its namesake—radiators. Similar to fusilli, these stocky noodles were invented between the First and Second World Wars and have since become a favourite for their defining deep ridges that work best in thicker, heartier sauces.
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