Paccheri substitute

Best substitute

Rigatoni

Use the same amount by weight as the paccheri you are replacing

Best for ragu

Close match

The best substitutes for paccheri are rigatoni for everyday sauces, cannelloni or manicotti tubes cut in half when you need to stuff them, and jumbo pasta shells for a baked dish. All three swap in at 1:1 by weight. Paccheri's job is purely structural, so what you are matching is tube diameter and how much sauce ends up inside each piece.

Other paccheri substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Ziti or Mezzi Ziti Rigati
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Smooth-walled tubes, which is closer to what paccheri actually are, since paccheri are usually sold lisci rather than ridged.
What changes
Best for
baked pasta, ragu, ziti al forno
The smooth surface behaves like paccheri: sauce slides rather than grips, so you want a sauce with real body or fat, not a thin one. Narrower again than rigatoni, so slightly less sauce per bite and a springier chew.
3Cannelloni or Manicotti Tubes, Cut in Half
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight, each tube cut crosswise into two
The best diameter match on a supermarket shelf.
What changes
Cut each long tube in half and you have something very close to paccheri in width and length, with enough room to stuff.
Best for
stuffed and baked paccheri, paccheri with ricotta or sausage filling
The walls are thinner than paccheri, so they collapse more easily when you pipe filling in and they can split during baking. Boil them a full three minutes short of al dente, cool them in a single layer, and stuff with a piping bag or a zip bag with the corner cut off. Expect a softer, more lasagna-like bite rather than paccheri's dense chew.
4Jumbo Pasta Shells (Conchiglioni)
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
The most reliable swap if the recipe is stuffed and baked, because shells are designed to hold filling and to sit upright in the dish.
What changes
Best for
stuffed and baked, ricotta fillings, make-ahead dinners
A shell is a cup, not a tube, so the filling is exposed on top and browns and dries where paccheri would keep it sealed and creamy. Cover the dish for the first twenty minutes to compensate. Shells also hold noticeably more filling per piece, so budget about a third more.
5Calamarata or Lumaconi
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Calamarata are the same diameter as paccheri but cut short into rings; lumaconi are large snail shells.
What changes
Both are usually found in the same specialty aisle, so if you were looking for paccheri you may find these instead.
Best for
seafood sauces, ragu, chunky vegetable sauces
Calamarata behave almost identically to paccheri with a loose sauce and are actually better with seafood, since the rings mimic squid. Too short to stuff. Lumaconi hold a lot of sauce and can be stuffed, but they look rustic rather than sleek.
6Penne Rigate
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
The last resort, and worth naming because most people have it in the cupboard.
What changes
Best for
ragu, baked pasta, weeknight substitution
Roughly a third of paccheri's diameter, so a sauce built around big tubes ends up with the chunks of meat or vegetable sitting outside the pasta rather than inside it, and the dish reads as ordinary weeknight pasta. Cut the meat and vegetables in the sauce smaller and it works fine.

What is Paccheri?

Paccheri is Paccheri are very wide smooth pasta tubes from Naples, roughly an inch across and an inch and a half long, big enough to trap chunks of meat inside or to be stuffed and baked.

Cooking tips

Paccheri means slaps, from the sound the wide tubes make hitting the plate, and the very similar schiaffoni are simply a larger version. If a recipe names schiaffoni, paccheri and everything on this list apply equally.
Big tubes trap boiling water inside. Drain them tilted in a colander for a good thirty seconds, or lift them out with a spider, or the plate will flood and thin your sauce.
For any baked version, undercook by three minutes, not one. A wide tube keeps absorbing liquid in the oven, and paccheri or a substitute cooked to al dente in the pot comes out of the oven soft.
Paccheri need a sauce with body: ragu, genovese, a slow-cooked seafood sauce, or ricotta. A thin tomato sauce simply runs straight through the tube and leaves the pasta bare, and that is the mistake most substitutions get blamed for.
Boil large tubes in a wide pot rather than a tall one and stir in the first minute. They stack and stick to each other far more readily than short shapes.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just use rigatoni instead of paccheri?

Yes, for almost any sauced dish, at 1:1 by weight. The only case where it fails is stuffing, because rigatoni is too narrow to fill. Bear in mind that rigatoni is ridged and paccheri smooth, so rigatoni holds more sauce on the outside, which most people consider an improvement rather than a loss.

Can I just leave the shape out and use whatever pasta I have?

Yes, as long as you match the sauce to the shape rather than the reverse. A chunky sauce written for paccheri needs either a big shape to catch the chunks or the chunks cut smaller. What does not work is long pasta like spaghetti with a heavy ragu meant for tubes, because the meat slides off and gathers at the bottom of the bowl.

How long do paccheri take to cook, and does that change with substitutes?

Dried bronze-die paccheri usually need 13 to 15 minutes, longer than most shapes because the walls are thick. Rigatoni and ziti take 11 to 13, and cannelloni tubes and jumbo shells 9 to 12. Always check the box and start tasting two minutes early, because wide tubes go from firm to floppy quickly.

Is paccheri the same as large rigatoni?

They are often described that way in shops, and functionally it is close enough, but paccheri are wider and normally smooth while rigatoni are ridged. If a recipe calls for large rigatoni and you have paccheri, use them; if you want the sauce to grip more, choose paccheri rigati, the ridged version some brands make.

Which substitute should I pick for stuffed paccheri?

Cannelloni or manicotti tubes cut in half are closest to the real thing, and jumbo shells are the most forgiving. Whichever you choose, boil them well short of done, lay them out flat to cool so they do not fuse, and pipe the filling rather than spooning it, which is the difference between a neat dish and a broken one.

Related substitutes

More pasta & noodles substitutes

Paccheri substitute

Other paccheri substitutes

2Ziti or Mezzi Ziti Rigati

3Cannelloni or Manicotti Tubes, Cut in Half

4Jumbo Pasta Shells (Conchiglioni)

5Calamarata or Lumaconi

6Penne Rigate