Rigatoni

Pasta corta

Appears in
Encyclopedia of Pasta

By Oretta Zanini de Vita

Published 2009

  • About

Ingredients Durum-wheat flour and water.

How Made Factory-made thick, tubular pasta with ridges. They are boiled in plenty of salted water.

Also Known As Bombardoni, cannaroni, cannerozzi rigati, maniche, rigatoni romani, rigatoncini, trivelli, and tufoloni rigati. In Calabria, scaffittuni.

How Served As pastasciutta, with hearty local sauces.

Where Found Southern Italy.

Remarks The name comes from rigato, or “ridged.” Adding striations to the dies, which are what give ridges to certain pastas, must have been one of the first problems faced by the nascent pasta industry. With ridging, pasta made a great advance in quality because ridged pasta collected the sauce and grated cheese better than smooth pasta. In fact, ridged forms, from thin sedani to thick rigatoni, are the best sellers.