Fusilli substitute

Substitutes for Fusilli with ratios

1. 2Trofie

   Different texture

   Use the same amount by weight

   Small hand-rolled Ligurian twists, the shape that pesto was actually developed alongside.

   What changes

   Best for

   pesto alla genovese, the classic green bean and potato pesto dish, olive oil and garlic sauces, walnut sauce

   The best choice on this list for anything pesto-based, and a real improvement rather than a compromise: dense, chewy and slightly uneven, with a bite short fusilli does not have. The pieces are smaller and tighter, so they carry less of a heavy meat or cream sauce, and the thick rolled centre means they take two or three minutes longer to cook through. Taste one before draining, since the outside softens well before the middle does.

2. 3Casarecce

   Different texture

   Use the same amount by weight

   Short Sicilian lengths rolled into a narrow scroll with a groove running the length of them.

   What changes

   Best for

   tomato and aubergine sauces, pesto, ragu and sausage sauces, baked dishes

   An excellent and underrated swap. The rolled groove traps sauce as effectively as a helix does, and the thicker dough gives a firmer, chewier bite that stands up to a long-simmered ragu better than a thin spiral. It holds its shape well in a bake and reheats without going soft. Because the pieces are straighter and longer than fusilli, the dish looks less tangled and forkfuls come up neater. Allow an extra minute or two of boiling.

3. 4Gemelli

   Different texture

   Use the same amount by weight

   A single length of dough folded in half and twisted on itself, so it is solid rather than spiralled.

   What changes

   Best for

   pesto, meat sauce, baked dishes, cream sauces

   Denser and chewier than fusilli because it is solid twisted dough, so the dish eats more substantially and holds its texture through a bake or overnight in the fridge. Sauce collects in the seam between the two twists rather than in continuous grooves, which works well with anything of body and slightly less well with a very thin oily sauce. Give it one to two extra minutes in the water.

4. 5Cavatappi or Cellentani

   Close match

   Use the same amount by weight

   A hollow ridged corkscrew, which is a spiral and a tube at the same time.

   What changes

   Best for

   cheese sauces, cream sauces, baked pasta, sausage and vegetable sauces

   Frequently better than fusilli with anything creamy or cheesy, because the hollow centre fills up as well as the ridges gripping the outside. The bite is springier and the pieces are noticeably larger, so the same weight looks like fewer pieces on the plate and the dish feels chunkier and more filling. The thicker walls also make it the most reliable of these shapes in a long bake.

5. 6Bucatini or Perciatelli (for fusilli col buco only)

   Different texture

   Use the same amount by weight

   Long hollow strands, the right answer when the recipe wants the long coiled fusilli rather than short spirals.

   What changes

   Best for

   fusilli col buco recipes, fusilli lunghi, brothy and thin sauces, amatriciana-style sauces

   Worth knowing because it prevents a real mistake. Fusilli col buco is a long hollow coil meant to be twirled and to draw thin sauce up its centre, so short spirals are the wrong shape entirely, however similar the name. Bucatini gives you the same hollow strand without the spring, so you lose a little of the sauce-catching twist but keep the important part. It runs long, so break it only if the pan demands it, and stir well in the first minute.