Bucatini substitutes
Bucatini substitutes — 6 options, ranked, with the exact amount
Use Spaghettoni or thick spaghetti
Same amount as the bucatini
Use spaghetti at 1:1, and if you can find spaghettoni or thick spaghetti, use that instead, because the thickness matters more than the hole. Linguine also works one for one and clings well thanks to its flat sides. If you want the sauce trapped inside the pasta the way bucatini does it, switch to a short tube like rigatoni or ziti instead. Spaghetti gets you most of the way there, so do not delay dinner over this.
- Verdict —
- Works
- The tweak —
- Cook to just short of the package time, then finish for a minute in the pan with the sauce and a splash of pasta water.
- Best for —
- amatriciana
Updated 26 Jul 2026 · no sponsored swaps
Every option, one card
Ranked| # | Substitute | Instead of bucatini | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spaghettoni or thick spaghettiamatriciana | Same amountWorks | Works |
| 2 | Regular spaghettiamatriciana | Same amountTweak it | Tweak it |
| 3 | Linguinecacio e pepe | Same amountTweak it | Tweak it |
| 4 | Rigatoni or zitiamatriciana | Same amount by weightTweak it | Tweak it |
| 5 | Fettuccine or tagliatellecreamy sauces | Same amountYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
| 6 | Thick udon noodlesabsolute emergencies | Same amount by cooked weightYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
Spaghettoni or thick spaghetti
similar taste and texture
Spaghetti in a thicker gauge, usually around 2.2 to 2.5mm.
- Best for
- amatriciana, cacio e pepe, carbonara, puttanesca, any bucatini recipe
- Prep
- Cook to just short of the package time, then finish for a minute in the pan with the sauce and a splash of pasta water.
The best swap available and close enough that most people would not notice. The thick gauge gives you the substantial, springy chew that is really what people like about bucatini, and it stands up to robust sauces without going limp. What you lose is the hole, which means sauce coats the outside of the strand only rather than also filling the centre, so each mouthful carries slightly less sauce and delivers it all at once rather than in two stages. Nudge the sauce a little thicker to compensate.
Regular spaghetti
similar taste, different texture
Standard round long pasta, about 1.7 to 2mm thick.
- Best for
- amatriciana, cacio e pepe, tomato sauces, weeknight dinners
- Prep
- Salt the water well, cook one minute under the package time, and finish in the sauce.
Completely serviceable and almost certainly what is in your cupboard. The result is a lighter, more delicate plate: the strands are thinner so the chew is softer and less satisfying under a heavy sauce like amatriciana, and there is measurably less surface area per portion. Because it is thinner it also overcooks faster, and overcooked spaghetti in a guanciale-and-tomato sauce goes mushy in a way bucatini almost never does. Set a timer and check two minutes early.
Linguine
similar taste, different texture
Long pasta with a flattened oval cross-section, wider than spaghetti.
- Best for
- cacio e pepe, seafood sauces, oil-based sauces, creamy sauces
- Prep
- Cook al dente, drain reserving a cup of the water, and toss immediately so the strands do not fuse.
A slightly underrated answer. The flat sides give linguine more surface area than round pasta of the same weight, so sauce clings to it noticeably better and a cheese-and-pepper sauce coats it beautifully. The tradeoff is bite: linguine is thinner in one dimension, so it feels softer and more yielding rather than giving you that firm bucatini snap, and strands stick to each other more readily. Toss it well as soon as it drains.
Rigatoni or ziti
similar taste, different texture
Short wide tubes, rigatoni ridged and ziti smooth.
- Best for
- amatriciana, meat sauces, baked pasta, chunky vegetable sauces
- Prep
- Cook to al dente and finish in the pan; ridged shapes need slightly less pasta water since they hold sauce so well.
The swap that best preserves what the hole in bucatini was for, which is trapping sauce inside the pasta. Rigatoni in particular is the traditional alternative for amatriciana in Rome, so this is not a compromise but a legitimate choice. What changes entirely is the eating experience: short tubes are forked rather than twirled, they distribute sauce evenly across the bowl instead of concentrating it on long strands, and the ridges grip so aggressively that a thin sauce will cling where it would have slid off bucatini. Not appropriate for cacio e pepe, which needs long strands.
Fettuccine or tagliatelle
different taste and texture
Wide flat ribbons, usually made with egg rather than water.
- Best for
- creamy sauces, butter-based sauces, mushroom sauces, meat ragu
- Prep
- Cook briefly, drain while still firm, and finish in the sauce; egg pasta continues to soften off the heat.
Works, but changes the dish more than the other long shapes. Egg pasta is richer, softer and more porous, so it drinks up sauce and turns tender rather than staying firm, and it brings its own faint eggy sweetness to the plate. That is lovely under a butter or cream sauce and slightly muddled under something as sharp and lean as amatriciana. Egg ribbons also cook far faster, often in three or four minutes for fresh, so watch them closely.
Thick udon noodles
different taste and texture
Fat, soft Japanese wheat noodles.
- Best for
- absolute emergencies, when there is no Italian pasta in the house
- Prep
- Cook or reheat according to the package, rinse briefly, then toss hard with a deliberately thick sauce.
Named here for honesty rather than enthusiasm, because it is the least good option on this list. The thickness is right and the chew is substantial, but udon is made from soft wheat rather than durum semolina, so it is slippery, springy in a bouncy rather than firm way, and it releases a different kind of starch that makes Italian sauces slide off. It also tastes faintly sweet and doughy. If you go this way, use frozen or fresh udon rather than dried, rinse off surface starch, and make the sauce thicker than usual.
Questions
5 questionsIs spaghetti a good enough substitute for bucatini?
Yes, genuinely. It is not identical, but it is close enough that no reasonable recipe is ruined by it, and it is what most Italian home cooks would reach for without a second thought. The main thing you give up is the thicker gauge and the hollow centre, so the plate is a bit lighter and each strand carries slightly less sauce. If you have a choice, buy spaghettoni or thick spaghetti, since matching the thickness matters more to the finished dish than matching the hole.
What does the hole in bucatini actually do?
It roughly doubles the amount of surface the sauce can touch, since sauce coats the outside of the strand and also seeps into the channel running through the middle. That is why bucatini eats so satisfyingly with thin, fatty, intensely flavoured sauces like amatriciana: you get a burst from the inside as well as the coating on the outside. It also lets the strand cook through evenly despite being thick. The practical consequence for substituting is that the closest alternatives either match the thickness, like spaghettoni, or match the sauce-trapping, like rigatoni.
Can I just leave the bucatini out and use whatever pasta I have?
Yes. Pasta shape is a preference and a tradition, not a chemical requirement, and any dried semolina pasta will make a good dinner with an amatriciana or a cacio e pepe. The only real rule is to match the sauce to the shape rather than the recipe title: thin oily sauces want long strands, chunky and meaty sauces want tubes or shells that catch the bits, and very delicate shapes like angel hair collapse under anything heavy.
Is perciatelli the same as bucatini?
For practical purposes, yes. Perciatelli is the southern Italian name for the same hollow long pasta, from perciato meaning pierced, and it is often sold slightly thicker than bucatini. Some producers distinguish them by diameter and some use the names interchangeably. If a recipe calls for one and you find the other, buy it and cook it without a second thought, adjusting the boiling time to whatever the box says.
Why is bucatini so hard to find?
It was always a less-stocked shape than spaghetti, and a well-publicised supply shortage in 2020 emptied shelves in the United States and left many shops slower to restock it, which is part of why the substitute question comes up so often. It is also technically harder to extrude than solid pasta because of the pin that forms the hole, so fewer manufacturers make it. Italian delis and online grocers stock it reliably; in a general supermarket, thick spaghetti is your realistic option.
Tips for substituting bucatini
5 tips- Bucatini is thick, so it needs longer than spaghetti, often ten to twelve minutes, and it needs a genuinely large pot of well-salted water. If you swap to a thinner shape, cut the cooking time and start tasting two minutes before the package says, because the whole point of these sauces is a firm bite.
- Because bucatini is hollow it traps boiling water inside the strands, which then dribbles out and waters down your sauce. Give the colander a firm shake and a moment to drain before the pasta goes into the pan. This single step fixes a lot of disappointing bucatini all'amatriciana.
- Never rinse the pasta and always keep a mugful of the cooking water. That cloudy starchy water is what turns rendered guanciale fat or grated pecorino into a smooth clinging sauce rather than a greasy or clumpy one, and it matters more with any thinner substitute than it does with bucatini itself.
- Do not break long pasta in half to fit the pot, and do not cut bucatini into short lengths. The length is what lets sauce distribute along the strand as you twirl, and short broken pieces neither twirl nor hold sauce properly. Use a wider pot or let the ends soften for thirty seconds and press them down.
- Finish the pasta in the sauce for the last minute of cooking rather than pouring sauce over drained pasta. Thick shapes like bucatini absorb sauce in that final minute and come out seasoned all the way through, and if you have substituted a thinner shape this technique is the main way to make up for the lost surface area.