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FOOD AND DRINK

How many different types of pasta are there in Italy?

Italy is the motherland of pasta. But, from spaghetti to penne to fusilli, exactly how many different shapes will you find in the country?

Published: 9 February 2024 12:47 CET
Pasta, Nonna
Italy is the motherland of pasta but how many shapes are there in the country? Photo by Daniel Boczarski / Getty Images via AFP

Pasta is the cornerstone of Italian cuisine and, quite famously, Italians just can’t get enough of it.

According to estimates from consumer group Coldiretti, every Italian eats some 23.1 kilograms of pasta every year – that’s nearly two kilograms a month, and around half a kilo a week.

But how do they never get tired of it, you may wonder? 

One of the main reasons behind Italians’ unbreakable bond with pasta is the variety. There’s a whole range of pasta shapes, and, of course, associated sauces, that people can choose from and experiment with.

Though the exact number is not known, it’s generally thought that there are over 350 types of pasta in Italy, which means that you could potentially eat a different pasta shape every day of the year (though this is a challenge that we at the Local may not take up anytime soon).

But why are there so many pasta shapes to begin with?

Though an element of creativity cannot be ruled out (after all, there is such a thing as culinary art), the main reason behind the huge variety of pasta shapes available in Italy is down to different degrees of ‘affinity’ with the sauce being used, meaning that each type of pasta is designed to best express the flavours and peculiarities of a particular sauce. 

READ ALSO: Ask an Italian: How do you sauce pasta properly?

So for instance, many types of pasta corta (short pasta), including fusilli (corkscrew-shaped pasta), rigatoni (hollow cylindrical pasta with ridged sides) and maccheroni are generally served with fairly dense sauces, especially meat ragù and ricotta-based sughi, as they allow to better ‘scoop up’ all the goodness they’re paired with. 

Pasta, Italy

‘Conchiglie’ (seashell-shaped) pasta on a factory production line in April 2020. Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP

Meanwhile, pasta lunga (long pasta) like spaghetti, vermicelli (slightly thicker than spaghetti) and linguine (flat noodles similar to bavette) are generally served with lighter sauces, including tomato and pesto sauces, as the swirling motion ‘traps’ the sauce between the noodles.

There are also numerous types of pasta that are almost exclusively used in soups, including stelline (small star-shaped pasta) and ditalini (small tube-shaped pasta), as these can be easily picked up with a kitchen spoon.

Finally, some types of pasta are available in two (or more) slightly different versions. For instance, penne rigate (ridged penne) have a ‘smooth’ counterpart: penne lisce. The same goes for spaghetti, which are available in different diameters in most Italian supermarkets. 

READ ALSO: Ask an expert: Ten golden rules for cooking pasta like an Italian

That said, while there are literally tens of dozens of pasta shapes they can choose from, Italians do have some favourites. 

According to Unione Italiana Food, spaghetti take the crown of best-loved Italian pasta type, with penne rigate and fusilli claiming the second and third spot respectively.

The top 10 is then completed by: rigatoni, farfalle, linguine, lumachine, bucatini, mezze maniche and lasagne.

What’s your favourite Italian pasta shape? Let us know in the comments below.

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MOVING TO ITALY

Readers recommend: Eight books you must read to understand Italy

After we published our own recommendations of some of the best books to read for those considering a move to Italy, The Local's readers weighed in with suggestions of your own.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:24 CEST
Readers recommend: Eight books you must read to understand Italy

In our previous guide to some of the best books to read before moving to Italy, we asked our readers to get in touch with your recommendations.

A number of you responded with your favourite reads about Italy; here’s what you suggested:

Ciao Bella – Six Take Italy

An anonymous reader describes this as “a delightful book about an Australian radio presenter who takes her husband and four children Bologna for a year which turns into two years (one being Covid).”

Kate Langbroek’s comic memoir “had me laughing and crying,” they write.

A Small Place in Italy

An apt choice for those considering their own rural Italian renovation project, Sam Cross recommends this book by British writer Eric Newby about buying, remodelling and moving into a cottage in the Tuscan countryside.

Cross also recommends Newby’s earlier work, ‘Love and War in the Appennines’, about his time as a British prisoner of war captured in Italy by the Germans in WWII.

READ ALSO: Eight of the best books to read before moving to Italy

Here, the author tells of his escape assisted by local partisans, “including a girl, Wanda, who became his future wife. A beautiful story,” says Cross.

The Italians

The Italians is written by veteran Italy correspondent John Hooper, who formerly wrote for the Guardian and is now the Economist’s Italy and Vatican reporter.

From politics to family traditions and the Mafia, the book tackles a range of aspects of Italian history and culture without getting lost in the weeds.

Simone in Rome describes it as “the best single volume on Italian customs and culture there is”.

READ ALSO: Nine things to expect if you move to rural Italy

Venice

It may be more than six decades old, but Jan Morris’s Venice is still considered one of the definitive English-language works on the lagoon city.

Book, Venice, library

A woman reads a book in Venice’s famous Acqua Alta library. Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Though a work of non-fiction, the book has been compared to Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited for its nostalgic, evocative tone.

“A personal view, beautifully written,” recommends reader Mary Austern.

Thin Paths

Described as a mix of travel book and memoir, Thin Paths is written by Julia Blackburn, who moved with her husband into a small house in the hills of Liguria in 1999.

Despite arriving with no Italian, over time she befriended her elderly neighbours, who took her into their confidence and shared stories of the village’s history under the control of a tyrannical landowner and the outbreak of World War II.

“Write it down for us,” they told her, “because otherwise it will all be lost.”

READ ALSO: Six things foreigners should expect if they live in Rome

In Other Words

If you’re currently learning Italian, consider Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri’s In Other Words / In Altre Parole, which discusses the writer’s journey towards mastery of Italian through full immersion.

Reader Brett says, “The book is written in both Italian and English, presented on opposite pages, so it’s also a nice learning tool!”

Lahiri has since written Racconti Romani, or Roman Tales, a series of short stories set in and around Rome riffing off Alberto Moravia’s 1954 short story collection of the same name.

A Rosie Life in Italy

Ginger Hamilton says she would “highly recommend the ‘A Rosie Life in Italy’ series by Rosie Meleady.”

It’s “the delightfully written true story of an Irish couple’s move to Italy, purchase of a home, the process of rehabbing it, and their life near Lago di Trasimeno.”

The Dark Heart of Italy

Reader William describes The Dark Heart of Italy by Tobias Jones as an “excellent” book.

The product of a three-year journey across the Italy, Jones takes on the darker side of Italian culture, from organised crime to excessive bureaucracy.

Though it was published in 2003, Dark Heart stands the test of time: “twenty-odd years old but the essential truth of it hasn’t changed,” William writes.

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