You could be accustomed to shapes like macaroni, penne, spaghetti, and even ravioli. However these pasta shapes are so bizarre, they’ll make you increase your eyebrows and go — “Oh, mamma mia!” Let’s take a look at some funny-looking, uncommon pasta shapes.

Testaroli

Is it bread? Is it pasta? We’ll go away that to you to resolve. Testaroli, or testarolo, is skinny, spongy pasta, or bread that’s ready in round crêpe-like sheets, after which sliced into diamond or rectangular shapes. Because of its spongy texture, it’s usually in comparison with a bread that’s just like Focaccia bread.

Having originated within the Lunigiana area of Italy, it is among the oldest pastas in existence. Testaroli is ready by mixing flour, water, and salt – among the components required for pasta dough – combined right into a batter, after which cooked on a flat floor fabricated from terracotta or forged iron, known as a testo, therefore the title. It might be dressed with pesto or different components resembling olive oil, pecorino (a salty cheese constructed from sheep’s milk), parmesan cheese, and garlic.

Su Filindeu

This uncommon and endangered pasta form seems to be just like the textile trade acquired dough as an alternative of threads and large stitching machines, and positive sufficient, that makes it not solely the strangest, but in addition essentially the most tough pasta form to grasp. This masterclass-worthy pasta form originated from the mountains of the Barbagia area in Sardinia, an island on the Mediterranean sea.

Because of its endangered standing, it’s listed within the Ark of Style, a world catalogue of endangered heritage meals which makes efforts to guard these at-risk meals that are sustainably produced, distinctive, and are distinctive. (Sure, individuals, you heard it! There’s an organisation for shielding endangered FOOD!)

Su Filindeu is made by folding and pulling semolina (sooji, as we name it) dough into very skinny threads that are additional laid in three layers on prime of one another on a tray and dried to kind textile-like sheets. The dried sheets are then damaged into smaller items and historically served in mutton or sheep broth with Pecorino cheese.

Campanelle

These are most likely one of many cutest pasta shapes on the checklist. The title interprets to “little bells” or “bellflowers”, and because the title suggests, they’re formed like little cones with a ruffled edge – or higher but, a bell. Because of its floral form, it’s additionally known as gigli (‘lilies’) or trompetti (‘trumpets’).

These floral pasta shapes originate from Tuscany, and right here’s a enjoyable reality – the pasta can be related to a really particular Italian flower: the Florentine lily (which is technically not a lily, however an iris). It additionally helps to know that Tuscany can be known as the “Metropolis of Lilies” as a result of affiliation with the flower.

These infants are fairly neatly formed, too. The conical construction helps in holding the sauce fairly effectively, giving a burst of the sauce in each chew. And therefore, it’s utilized in casserole dishes and dishes with a thick sauce.

‘A Caccavella

This pasta is apparently formed like a pot. Funnily sufficient, Caccavelle interprets to “pots” within the Neapolitan dialect of Italian. However, what makes this much more worthy of a “DAMN!” is that it’s the largest pasta form in existence. A typical shell measures 9 centimetres in diameter and 6 centimetres in top, and weighs round 50 grams.

Originating from Gragnano, a city close to Naples, Italy, this pasta is so big that they’re normally served stuffed in single parts. Enjoyable reality, Gragnano can be the place pasta was first produced commercially.

The commonest method to serve this pasta in a dish is with a filling of tomato sauce, mozzarella, minced meat and ricotta cheese. That is famously known as Caccavelle Pasta alla Sorrentina, and could be very conventional within the area of Campania.

Corzetti

When you thought enjoyable cut-outs with cookie cutters have been too mainstream, right here’s a pasta that takes aesthetic design to a different completely different degree: corzetti!

Hailing from Liguria in northwest Italy – alongside the border of France – corzetti has a really particular distinctive promoting level: an embossed little ornament on either side of the shell that may be given by a particular hand-carved piece of wooden, or by machine. This makes it appear to be a seal, or a coin. At one level, the pasta shell had a household coat of arms engraved on them, now they’ve a regional coat of arms, or the producer’s trademark.

On a facet observe, the title of the pasta is derived from the title of a Genoan coin, corzetto. Certainly explains lots, doesn’t it?

Cavatappi

What if fusilli and macaroni are crossbred? Maybe, it could look one thing like this. Cavatappi is actually macaroni with a spiral form like fusilli.

This pasta can be known as spirali, and it originated within the Nineteen Seventies, in a spot known as Barilla – considered one of Italy’s oldest meals corporations – in Parma, northern Italy. And its origin story is considered one of pleasure, too.

A set of pasta dies (steel plates used to impart a selected form within the dough) have been mistakenly made with a spiral set of strains, as an alternative of a straight set. These dies produced pasta in a spiral or spring form. Barilla determined to call it after Adriano Celentano – a singer-songwriter and actor from Italy, and one of many nation’s best showmen – who was nicknamed Il Molleggiato (lit. “the bouncy one”) as a consequence of his energetic dancing. As a result of this title was already trademarked, different pasta producers gave it a unique title, like cavatappi. (lit. corkscrews). And sure, DO NOT confuse this pasta with fusilli, despite the fact that that can be generally known as “corkscrew pasta”.

Revealed – October 07, 2025 01:15 pm IST