5 Rare Pasta Shapes You Never Knew Existed

Anyone who’s frequented Italian restaurants or enjoys indulging in platters of pasta on a weekly basis should know their basic pasta shapes as well as they know the alphabet. You have your tubes (rigatoni, penne, ziti), your strands (angel hair, linguine, spaghetti), and a few other odd shapes that pop up here and there in certain dishes (orecchiette, fusilli, farfalle). And, as any chef will tell you, when you make authentic Italian cuisine, the pasta shapes actually matter. They’re not just added for show. Depending on what kind of sauce you’re dressing the noodles with, the shapes play a huge role in letting the flavor profiles of the sauce shine. There’s a whole lot more to a platter of noodles and sauce than meets the eye.

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But, even if you think you’ve conquered just about every pasta shape there is, if you really take a deep dive into the varied underworld of noodles, you quickly realize you’re an amateur at best. There are a ton (and we mean a ton) of shapes that don’t grace the menus at restaurants and aren’t sold in boxes on supermarket shelves. So, get ready to find yourself eyeball deep in five pasta shapes you never knew existed. Then afterwards you can finally brag to your Italian nonna about how much you know.

Busiate

This noodle, made with semolina and water, is twisted and firm, giving every bite an al dente feel. Some say it resembles a telephone cord, while others compare it to a double helix DNA strand. However, the name comes from the word “buso,” which is a needle used to craft cotton and wool fabrics. This noodle is most often paired with seafood.

Passatelli 

If you ever get the chance to eat a dish using these noodles, keep in mind they’re not technically pasta, because you don’t use flour and water to make them. Instead, chefs combine breadcrumbs, eggs, and Parmigiano Reggiano and press the mixture through a metal tool called a ferro. The resulting noodle is cheesy and thick, and although it isn’t aesthetically pleasing, it tastes delicious.

Campanelle 

The English translation of this pasta’s name is “bellflower,” and for good reason. The pasta does, in fact, look like a tiny flower, with starchy petals and a funnel-shaped center perfect for holding onto sauce to give each bite a wallop of flavor. They’re best served with thick sauces that like to cling to the noodles.

Strozzapreti 

These noodles are twisted and hollow, and the origin story behind them is pretty morbid (the name translates to “priest strangler”). During the 17th century,  the Papal State was enacting rigid taxes throughout Italy, and housewives created this dense, chewy noodle in hopes the priests who ate it would choke and die. It was their subtle way to fight back at authority. Hence the name “priest strangler.” Yikes.

Corzetti 

If you’re looking for a pasta with an absolutely gorgeous appearance, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one more aesthetically pleasing than this. These noodles come in the shape of thin circles, and on each one bears flowery, and sometimes even nautical designs. Each noodle looks like an edible medallion, and it almost feels wrong to eat something that took so much time to make. And, because they’re so time-consuming to make, only a few restaurants in the world actually serve them.