Rigatoni substitute

Best substitute

Penne rigate

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

Best for baked pasta and ziti-style casseroles

Close match

Penne rigate is the closest substitute and swaps one for one by weight. Ziti and mostaccioli are the same size and shape but smooth, so they work well in a baked dish where melted cheese holds everything together and less well in a loose sauce. Cavatappi, fusilli or large shells are excellent alternatives because they are just as good at trapping sauce, even though they have no hollow centre. Elbow macaroni will do if the sauce is fairly smooth. What rigatoni is doing in the recipe is entirely mechanical, and knowing that makes the choice easy: the ridges give a thick sauce something to grab, the wide hollow lets pieces of sausage, meat or vegetable lodge inside so every forkful is sauced, and the thick walls survive twenty-five minutes in a hot oven without turning to mush. The shapes that disappoint are the smooth narrow ones, penne lisce above all, where a chunky sauce simply slides off and settles at the bottom of the dish.

Other rigatoni substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Ziti or mostaccioli
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Smooth-sided tubes of about the same length and width as rigatoni, cut straight or on the diagonal.
What changes
Best for
baked ziti and casseroles, cheesy bakes, meat sauces, feeding a crowd
The right choice for a baked dish and a slightly weaker one for anything else. Being the same size and hollow, ziti holds filling and chunks inside just as rigatoni does, and in a bake the melted mozzarella and ricotta glue everything together so the missing ridges do not matter. In a loose, brothy or oil-based sauce you notice immediately, because a smooth exterior lets sauce slide off and the pasta tastes underdressed while the bottom of the bowl fills with liquid. If ziti is what you have for a stovetop sauce, thicken the sauce a little and finish the pasta in the pan with a splash of the cooking water.
3Cavatappi or fusilli
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Corkscrew shapes, cavatappi being a ridged hollow spiral and fusilli a solid twist.
What changes
Best for
vodka sauce and creamy sauces, macaroni cheese, pasta salads, baked pasta, sausage and greens
A different geometry that solves the same problem, and with creamy sauces it is arguably better than rigatoni. All those spirals and ridges create enormous surface area, so a vodka sauce or a cheese sauce clings to every millimetre. What changes is what happens to solid pieces: with no wide straight tube, chunks of meat or vegetable have nowhere to lodge, so a very chunky ragu ends up distributed around the pasta rather than inside it. The bite is also springier and more playful than a straight tube's clean snap. Cavatappi holds up well in the oven; delicate thin-walled fusilli can soften more than you would like.
4Large shells (conchiglie)
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Curved ridged shells that form a cup, sold in medium and large sizes.
What changes
Best for
chunky meat and vegetable sauces, baked pasta, creamy sauces, pasta salads
An underrated swap, because a shell is essentially a scoop and it catches sauce as well as any tube does, sometimes better. Ridged shells trap thick sauce on the outside and hold a pool of it inside, so each piece arrives fully dressed. Two things differ. The bite is softer and more delicate than rigatoni's firm chew, since the shell walls are thinner, and shells nest and stick together in a baked dish more readily, so stir them well into the sauce before it goes in the oven. Undercook them by two minutes if they are going to be baked.
5Paccheri or mezze maniche
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Large smooth tubes, or short wide tubes that look like rigatoni cut in half.
What changes
Best for
chunky braised ragu, baked dishes, stuffed pasta dishes, restaurant-style plates
Both are close relatives and either makes a handsome dish. Mezze maniche is essentially short rigatoni, often ridged, and behaves identically. Paccheri is much larger and usually smooth, which makes it dramatic on the plate and very good at swallowing pieces of braised meat, though the smooth exterior holds less sauce and the big tubes can tear or collapse if you overcook them or stir them roughly. With either shape, add a minute or two to the cooking time and toss gently with a rubber spatula rather than a spoon.
6Elbow macaroni
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Small curved tubes, the standard macaroni cheese shape.
What changes
Best for
macaroni cheese, creamy and smooth sauces, baked pasta, children's meals, pasta salads
Perfectly serviceable when the sauce is smooth, and frustrating when it is not. Elbows are far smaller than rigatoni, so a portion contains many more pieces and the dish feels denser and more homely, closer to macaroni cheese than to a Sunday baked pasta. Because the tubes are narrow and short, chunks of sausage or roasted vegetable cannot get inside them and the sauce needs to be finer to work at all. They also cook faster, around seven minutes, and absorb sauce quickly in a bake, so add a little extra sauce or milk before it goes in the oven.

What is Rigatoni?

Rigatoni is Rigatoni is a short, wide, straight-cut pasta tube with deep ridges running along the outside, the name coming from rigate, meaning ridged, and it is the shape most baked pasta and vodka sauce recipes are written around.

Cooking tips

Look for the word rigate on the packet. Rigate means ridged and lisce means smooth, and the difference is not cosmetic: those ridges are the reason a thick sauce clings instead of sliding. Bronze-cut pasta, often labelled trafilata al bronzo, has a rougher surface again and grips even better. If your only option is smooth pasta, compensate by thickening the sauce slightly and tossing the drained pasta in the pan with a splash of the starchy cooking water.
Undercook by two minutes for anything that goes in the oven. Baked pasta continues to cook and to absorb liquid in the dish, so pasta boiled to a perfect bite beforehand comes out soft and bloated. Boil it to distinctly firm, drain, and mix it with slightly more sauce than looks necessary. This matters even more with smaller or thinner substitutes like elbows, shells and fusilli, which soak up sauce faster than a thick-walled rigatoni tube.
Add sauce generously when you change shape, because different shapes hold different amounts. Swapping rigatoni for elbow macaroni roughly doubles the number of pieces in the dish and therefore the total surface area, so the same quantity of sauce spreads thinner and the bake can end up dry. As a rule, add a further half cup of sauce, passata or milk per five hundred grams of pasta when you go to a smaller shape.
Toss the pasta into the sauce, not the sauce onto the pasta. Tubes and shells trap sauce only if they get properly mixed while both are hot. Drain the pasta, tip it straight into the pan of sauce with a ladle of cooking water, and toss over low heat for a minute until the sauce thickens and coats. Sauce poured on top of a bowl of plain pasta never finds its way inside the tubes.
Do not rinse the pasta unless it is going into a cold salad. That cloudy starch on the surface is what makes sauce stick, and washing it off is the single most common reason a baked pasta or a vodka sauce ends up watery. The exception is pasta salad, where rinsing under cold water stops the cooking and prevents the pieces welding into a block.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between rigatoni and penne?

Rigatoni is a wider tube with blunt straight-cut ends and deeper ridges; penne is narrower with ends cut on a diagonal into points, and comes in ridged and smooth versions. That means rigatoni's larger opening catches chunks of sausage, meat or vegetable inside it, while penne tends to carry sauce on the outside only. They substitute for each other freely at the same weight, and for most sauces the difference is small. Just buy penne rigate rather than penne lisce, because the smooth version holds sauce noticeably worse.

Can I use smooth pasta like ziti or mostaccioli instead of rigatoni?

In a baked dish, yes, without hesitation, since the melted cheese and thick sauce bind everything together and the missing ridges make little difference. Baked ziti is exactly this dish. In a stovetop sauce, particularly a chunky sausage ragu or a vodka sauce, you will notice a real drop in how much sauce clings, and the dish can taste underdressed while the sauce pools at the bottom. Thicken the sauce slightly, toss the pasta in the pan with a splash of its cooking water, and add grated parmesan, which helps the sauce grip.

Can I use a smaller shape like macaroni or shells for baked rigatoni?

Yes, with one adjustment. Smaller shapes mean many more pieces and far more total surface area, so the same amount of sauce is spread thinner and the bake can come out dry. Add roughly an extra half cup of sauce or milk per five hundred grams of pasta, and undercook the pasta by two minutes since small shapes soften faster in the oven. Shells and elbows both make an excellent baked pasta; the dish simply eats more like macaroni cheese and less like a Sunday centrepiece.

Can I just leave the pasta out or use something else entirely?

The pasta is the body of the dish, so it cannot simply be omitted, but the sauce is portable. A vodka sauce or a sausage ragu is very good over gnocchi, spooned onto polenta, layered with roasted aubergine or courgette in place of pasta, or served with rice. Cooked and drained gnocchi baked under the sauce with mozzarella is the closest thing to baked rigatoni without pasta. If you need a gluten-free version, corn and rice tube pasta works, but boil it barely and add extra sauce, because it softens fast in the oven.

How much rigatoni do I need per person?

Around eighty to a hundred grams of dried pasta per person for a main course, or about five hundred grams for a baked dish serving four to six generously alongside sauce and cheese. Weigh it rather than measuring by volume, since short tubes pack very differently from shells or spirals in a measuring cup and the error can be considerable. For a bake, err slightly on the side of less pasta and more sauce, which is the reliable way to avoid a dry casserole.

Related substitutes

More pasta & noodles substitutes

Rigatoni substitute

Other rigatoni substitutes

2Ziti or mostaccioli

3Cavatappi or fusilli

4Large shells (conchiglie)

5Paccheri or mezze maniche

6Elbow macaroni