Tortelloni substitutes

Square or round filled pillows from the refrigerated case, usually ricotta based, in roughly the same size bracket as tortelloni. The best all-round match.

Best for

butter and sage, tomato sauce, cream sauces, brothy soups

The filling-to-pasta ratio is close, so each bite tastes about the same, and the cook time is nearly identical at four to six minutes for fresh. The difference is shape and edge: ravioli has flat sealed borders that stay firmer and a little thicker than the rest, where a tortellone is a rolled ring with more even thickness and a chewier twist at the seam. On the plate ravioli lies flat and tortelloni sits up, which changes the look but nothing else.

The same fold, roughly half the size, and stocked far more widely both fresh and dried. The obvious substitute, but not a straight one-for-one.

Best for

brothy soups, butter and parmesan, cream sauces, tomato sauce

Because tortellini are smaller, there is proportionally more pasta and less filling in every bite, so the dish tastes noticeably less rich and less cheesy than the same weight of tortelloni. Add a bit more butter or grated parmesan at the finish if you want to close that gap. They also cook faster, usually three to five minutes fresh against five to seven for tortelloni, so go by the packet on the box you actually bought. Meat-filled tortellini will shift the flavour of a spinach-and-ricotta recipe considerably; buy cheese-filled if you can.

Half-moon or small pillow-shaped filled pasta, both common in refrigerated cases and Italian delis. Similar size, similar fillings.

Best for

butter and sage, cream sauces, light tomato sauces

Very close in the mouth, since these are the same thin egg dough around the same kind of filling. Mezzelune tend to have a slightly thinner wrapper, so they are more fragile in a stirred sauce and better suited to being spooned over than tossed. Agnolotti are usually smaller and sometimes meat-filled, in which case a delicate cream sauce written for cheese tortelloni will taste much heavier and savourier.

Whatever is in the freezer case: ravioli, tortellini, mezzelune, pierogi-style filled pasta. Not a purist's answer, but a real one when the refrigerated case is empty.

Best for

weeknight dinners, butter or tomato sauces, baked filled pasta

Frozen filled pasta has a thicker, sturdier wrapper than fresh, so the bite is chewier and less delicate, and it takes longer, often eight to ten minutes from frozen. Do not thaw it first; it will stick together and split. Because the wrapper is thicker, the filling reads as a smaller proportion of each bite, so expect a plainer, doughier result than fresh tortelloni.

Genuinely worth knowing: wonton wrappers are thin wheat sheets that fold and seal like fresh pasta. Spoon a teaspoon of ricotta mixed with parmesan, egg, nutmeg, and squeezed spinach into each, wet the edges, and fold into a triangle or a ring.

Best for

when you want the right filling and there is no filled pasta on the shelf, butter and sage, brothy soups

The flavour is right, because you control the filling, and the size can match tortelloni exactly. The wrapper is thinner and more slippery than egg pasta and it goes soft fast, so simmer gently for two to three minutes rather than boiling hard, and lift them out with a slotted spoon. In a rich sauce nobody will comment; in a clear broth the thinner skin is noticeable.

The honest answer when there is no filled pasta at all: you cannot replace filled pasta with plain pasta, so rebuild the dish instead. Cook penne, shells, or farfalle and toss it with ricotta loosened with pasta water, parmesan, and wilted spinach.

Best for

no filled pasta available, recipes where tortelloni was in a tomato or butter sauce

This is a different dish and it is worth saying so plainly. You get the same flavours, cheese and spinach and pasta, but the filling is spread through the bowl instead of concentrated in parcels, so nothing has the pillowy centre that makes filled pasta what it is. It is very good in its own right and takes ten minutes. What it is not is tortelloni.