Tortiglioni

My favourite tubular pasta, tortiglioni are similar to rigatoni, but with more pronounced grooves that are slanted, wrapping around the tubular pasta in a multiple helix, like the red and white rotating signs you used to see outside the barber’s shop. The word tortiglione is also linked to heraldry, referring to the headband worn on the testa di moro (Moor’s head) on the Sardinian flag – it stems from the latin torquere, ‘to turn’. As with most industrial pastas, tortiglioni are popular in the south, in this case particularly Campania and Lazio.