Farfalle substitutes

Short corkscrews with deep grooves. They hold dressing and small chopped ingredients better than almost any other shape, which is exactly what farfalle is prized for.

Best for

pasta salad, creamy sauces, pesto, chunky vegetable sauces, baked pasta

The bite is more uniformly firm than farfalle, which always has that soft-wing-and-firm-knot contrast. Most people prefer the consistency. Cook time is similar, around 8 to 10 minutes.

Short tubes that fill with sauce internally rather than catching it on the surface.

Best for

tomato sauces, baked pasta, sausage and greens, vodka sauce

The mouthfeel changes noticeably: you get a hollow tube that bursts with sauce instead of a chewy pinched knot. It is worse than farfalle for a mayonnaise-based pasta salad, where the smooth outside sheds dressing, and better than farfalle for a loose tomato sauce.

Cupped shells that scoop up peas, corn, bacon bits and small vegetable dice.

Best for

pasta salad, cheese sauces, soups, peas and ham, macaroni salad

Shells trap even more small ingredients than farfalle, sometimes too well, and they hold hot water inside so drain them thoroughly or a creamy sauce will thin out. Texture is closest of any shape to the soft-wing part of farfalle.

Flat, tender, eggy ribbons. For kasha varnishkes, where bow ties are the classic pairing, egg noodles are the other traditional shape and arguably the older one.

Best for

kasha varnishkes, noodle kugel, buttered noodles, beef stroganoff, chicken soup

They are richer and softer because of the egg, and they clump more, so toss with fat immediately after draining. In varnishkes this reads as more tender and less chewy, which most people like. In a cold pasta salad they turn gummy, so do not use them there.

Small cupped or fluted shapes about the same size as a bow tie.

Best for

broccoli rabe, sausage sauces, pesto, chunky sauces

Orecchiette are noticeably chewier and denser than farfalle, closer to the pinched knot than the wings, and they take a couple of minutes longer to cook. Campanelle's ruffled edges are the nearest visual match to farfalle wings.

Cut fresh pasta sheets or dried lasagna noodles into rough one-inch squares. For real bow ties, pinch each square hard in the middle with a wet fingertip.

Best for

kasha varnishkes, when you want the actual shape, soups, buttered noodles

This is genuinely the shape rather than an approximation, and it is what varnishkes originally were. Fresh squares cook in two to three minutes and are much more tender; dried lasagna squares cook in about 10 and hold a firmer bite. Unpinched squares slide against each other and feel silkier than farfalle.

The pantry fallback. Small, cheap, and in nearly every kitchen.

Best for

macaroni salad, cheese sauce, soups, feeding children

Much smaller than farfalle, so a bowl reads as a different dish entirely, and the pieces get lost against big chunks of vegetable or meat. Fine, clearly not the same. Cut other ingredients smaller to match.