14 Pasta Shapes You'll Never Find At Olive Garden (But Every Italian Knows)

There's a wonderful and robust culture of Italian-American restaurants in the U.S., and every state has its own great hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant. Be that as it may, most Americans' regular interactions with Italian food occur at a mega-chain restaurant. Some of those nostalgic Italian restaurant chains have faded away, and while the Olive Garden experience continues to delight many who may also be fans of Romano's Macaroni Grill and Buca di Beppo, it hardly provides an authentic, classically Italian dining experience.

The menus at Olive Garden and other big Italian restaurant companies are often fairly simple, designed with cost-effectiveness, familiarity, and broad appeal in mind. This means that the style of pasta offered at such chains is a limited selection at best, with options like spaghetti, macaroni, fettuccine, and lasagna factoring into most dishes. All are delicious, but we know there just has to be more pasta out there.

In looking for interesting, overlooked, underrated, and versatile pasta shapes not ordinarily or often found at most chain Italian restaurants or American supermarkets, we sought out the opinion of those who know best: the chefs and restaurateurs behind some of the country's most innovative and acclaimed Italian eateries. The Takeout spoke with Gregory Rubin, executive chef of Campi Italian at The Ray Hotel Delray Beach in Florida; Matt Adler, a chef and partner at Cucina Morini and Caruso's Grocery; chef Daniele Trivero of ENTYSE at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner; and Christopher Li, chef de cuisine at Capolinea at Signia by Hilton Atlanta.

Hailing from the Piedmont region of Italy, agnolotti is a small, bite-sized pasta belonging to the stuffed pasta family. Similar to other pastas that are filled with something and sealed, like ravioli or tortelloni, agnolotti was developed by Piedmont farmers to make use of small amounts of leftover meat. As such, it's historically been a pasta that goes with meat, traditionally served in a variety of ways: with a ragu, in a meaty broth, in a gravy made with roasted meat, or with sage, butter, and Parmesan cheese. 

Restaurant chains like Olive Garden serve dishes prepared in this way, and often at a premium price to account for the generous use of meat, but with more familiar pasta like ravioli or gnocchi. Chef-centric, high-end Italian restaurants make good use of agnolotti, using it as an inspiration for savory, beef-forward dishes. "I love our short rib agnolotti," says chef Gregory Rubin of Campi. "The delicate pasta complements the rich bone marrow and short rib filling perfectly."

Scarcely about a century old, mafaldine got its name in Italy in 1902. A pasta maker came up with it to mark the birth of Mafalda of Savoy, the daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III. It's thought that mafaldine was already in existence, but the pasta maker — and the rest of Italy — accepted the name change from manfredine.

In other parts of Italy, the pasta is known by other names associated with its secondary inspiration, such as mafalde or reginette (Italian for "little queens"). Long, narrow, and flat except for the prominent ruffles on the sides, mafaldine resembles lasagna noodles if they were thinner and historically made with a bronze die. Chefs love this rarely-seen-in-America noodle. "A very special pasta shape we run as a special at Campi is our Spicy Crab Mafaldine," says Gregory Rubin. "This specific shape is kind of like a fluted tagliatelle."

Matt Adler has equally positive things to say about mafaldine. "Mafaldine is a fun shape that everyone loves; it's what we use at Caruso's Grocery in our truffle mushroom Alfredo dish. Taking a bite of that always puts a smile on my face," Adler says, appreciating the pasta despite its somewhat complicated process. "We recently needed to replace our Pacceri extruder die at Cucina Morini. It took a few weeks for the replacement to come. I love that shape, needless to say."

Cavatelli is one of the oldest pasta types still made today, which originated in Italy. Believed to be native to the Molise and Puglia regions in eastern Italy, cooked cavatelli more closely resembles a dumpling than the soft, long, and floppy noodles that pad out the menus at American institutions like Olive Garden. However, it's also a hollow, roughly cylindrical, inch-long pasta shell, not totally dissimilar to familiar pasta shapes like penne.

In home cooking, chef Gregory Rubin recommends ditching the macaroni used in many recipes in favor of cavatelli. In some Italian communities, the pasta is known as cavatelli al mischiglio, with the latter words referring to how the dough used is a combination of multiple flours, with durum wheat semolina bolstered by finely ground barley, chickpeas, lentils, and fava beans. This pasta, made by pulling the pieces across a floured board with a finger, is historically served with a sauce made mostly of tomatoes.

Pasta is a staple of Italian food, but not all pastas can trace their heritage solely back to Italy. According to some food historians, orecchiette first popped up in medieval Provence, which is now France. Durum wheat was abundant there, and locals used the crop to make this pasta that could be dried, stored, and packed on ships to feed sailors. That's possibly how orecchiette found its way to the Puglia region of Italy in the 13th century. Identical pastas recur throughout Italian food history, but it's most commonly identified by orecchiette, a descriptive and accurate name that means "little ears."

With its sauce-capturing, shell-like form, orecchiette is among the most underrated pasta shapes for mac and cheese, although that's more of a home cooking suggestion because restaurants don't widely offer this as an alternative. Additionally, orecchiette is "good to cook with sausage and broccoli rabe," says Gregory Rubin. Meanwhile, Matt Adler points out that "orecchiette is one of the best when fresh, one of the worst when dry."

From simple wheat flour and water comes a complex little treasure of a pasta shape. Noodles called gigli are going to be one of two things in Italy — either an edible rendering of a twisting, flowering vine, or the blossom of a calla lily. Gigli translates to "lilies," in fact. Either way, gigli are generally cooked in a flavorful broth or salted water. Slight variants, such as cavatappi and cellentani, abound, as do slightly more shapeless ones like amorosi or cornetti. When it turns out more cone-like and impresses with ruffles along the top of the opening, it's often called campanelle.

Gigli is very good at collecting material in the cup or cone part of itself. This pasta became popular in the early 20th century with the age of mechanization, when consumer demand spiked for a cheap noodle that could hold onto a lot of sauce. Gregory Rubin calls out the pasta for its "fun shape" and notes that it's "good with lamb ragu or duck." Similarly, chef Christopher Li said that he "loves the bite on these."

Like many pastas, gemelli is made of just durum wheat flour and water. Found all over Italy, gemelli pasta is closely associated with the Campania region in the southern part of the country, where it's a style of a group of pastas called tortiglioni. That name means essentially the same thing as "twist," because all types of tortiglioni are produced in that fashion.

Rotini is another kind of spiral-shaped pasta, one more likely to be discovered in the United States at chain restaurants and on the kids' menu. Gemelli is almost an extra-twisted take of rotini. Gemelli, an Italian term for "twins," is doubly twisted, with the pasta dough crossed back over itself, around and around, before being cut into small, fork-size pieces.

"Gemelli is super versatile, you can really do a lot with it," chef Matt Adler attests. Not only does it have a pleasing appearance, but gemelli is a sturdy pasta that can be used in all sorts of dishes. It's foundational to baked casseroles, can be used instead of macaroni in macaroni and cheese, or tossed with a light tomato or cream sauce. "I like this shape for any sort of braised meat preparation," chef Gregory Rubin adds. Christopher Li, however, calls this pasta "overrated" and said that he'd "rather have strozzapretti or cannolicchi."

While the exact origins of bucatini are shrouded in time, the pasta was likely perfected in Sicily and popularized in Naples. That region took custody of the pasta, and you can still find some home kitchens equipped with an underwire device used to form the uniquely shaped bucatini. Pasta dough was once wrapped around a very thin stick to get bucatini, which resembles a thicker spaghetti but with the notable difference of the tube-like noodle being hollow in the middle.

In authentic, traditional Italian cuisine, bucatini might be most associated with pasta all'Amatriciana. A rustic, peasant dish that dates back centuries and probably won't pop up on an Olive Garden menu anytime soon, this sees bucatini tossed with a light tomato sauce along with bacon and Pecorino cheese. Chef Daniele Triveo prefers to use bucatini instead of the similar (but not hollow) spaghetti and linguini. Bucatini is "cacio e pepe's perfect vehicle," says Christopher Li, referring to the pasta's use in a classic, simple Italian dish made with just Pecorino Romano, pepper, and pasta water.

Something that resembles fish but isn't fish is unlikely to make a potentially confusing appearance at Olive Garden, particularly in one of its most traditional forms. La Calamarata is a dish from Naples made with both calamarata, a pasta that looks like squid, as well as real squid. Naples is a coastal area of Italy, and the seafood caught off its shores informs its local cuisine and street food. Calamari is a Neapolitan classic, and the widely-cut rings of tubular squid that have been seasoned, battered, and fried in oil are so commonplace there that they inspired that pasta style. Calamarata, cut with bronze implements and taking on a smooth texture, comes out in wide and even rings — invented in Naples and designed to look just like unbattered rings of calamari. 

That's exactly how many chefs would still use the pasta today. Chef Matt Adler reports that calamarata is "perfect with seafood pasta in a light, spicy tomato sauce." Gregory Rubin concurs. "I have done a fun calamari pasta dish to complement the ring-shaped shape," he says.

At first glance, it might be hard to tell the difference between calamarata, the Neapolitan pasta that imitates the shape of chopped rings of calamari, and paccheri, another generously cut tubular noodle. It's also from the Naples region, but it's just a bit longer than calamarata. The name comes from a Neapolitan term that translates to "big slaps," meaning a mundane, commonly eaten item that makes a slapping sound when it's chewed. None of that adheres to Olive Garden's semi-fancy aesthetic, nor would the need to stock two kinds of paccheri: the smoothly textured variety and the grooved paccheri millerighe.

"Paccheri is excellent when prepared alla gricia," says chef Gregory Rubin, discussing a classic Italian dish made with pasta, Pecorino Romano cheese, pepper, and cured pork jowl or cheek. "The thickness of the noodle works for this specific sauce." Matt Adler is also a big fan of paccheri, noting that while it may not have the "most versatile shape," he wouldn't want to use any other kind of pasta for a bowl of pasta alla Norma. Christopher Li praises paccheri's "amazing bite and mouthfeel," taking note of "a shape that expresses the quality of the pasta."

Italy is a predominantly Roman Catholic nation, and it has been for centuries. The culture of Italy's major religion has a direct link to this pasta shape. Up until the early 20th century, it was common for families to pray the rosary, a strand of beads used to count prayers, such as the "Hail Mary," devoted to Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. This pasta was sometimes called avemarie, which means "Hail Marys," to reflect the amount of time it took to cook these small pieces of pasta.

More commonly known as ditalini, or "thimbles," these little noodle tubes of different sizes proved especially well-suited to be the primary starch in a brothy, supper soup. While he wouldn't recommend it for every dish, Christopher Li thinks that ditalini definitely has its uses in Italian cuisine. "Ditalini only in soup, but it's perfect for it," he says. In comparison, Gregory Rubin thinks it's a good, simple pasta for a more luxurious dish. "Ditalini is actually a great shape for a truffle mac and cheese," he suggests.

An American without a deep knowledge of Italy's vast array of pasta shapes may get a look at gramigna and assume that it's spaghetti. It does somewhat resemble the most ordinary and entrenched in the U.S. noodle, particularly when it sits under a big helping of marinara sauce, but take another look: cooked gramigna is as short and curly as spaghetti is long and wavy.

In some Italian dialects, the term "gramigna" is used to describe quick-growing grass or weeds, and whoever created the pasta in its original, even smaller form — probably in the Emilia-Romagna area — must have thought it looked like those pesky plants. Over time, gramigna evolved until it reached its worm-like state. One would think this would be very popular on the kids' menu at Olive Garden, but it remains relatively under the radar beyond Italy.

That's unfortunate, according to the experts, because gramigna sounds like it would be something kids would enjoy, both on its own merits and underneath a familiar sauce. "Such a great shape, looks like small music notes, and lots of fun to eat," praised chef Matt Adler. "This curly thin pasta shape eats well with Bolognese," added chef Gregory Rubin. 

When you're eating fusilli, you're eating spindles, because that's how the name translates. Made from semolina, this pasta has a double helix structure and, as such, has to be made with some sort of industrial tool, dye, or extrusion device to create its unique, infinitely twisting appearance. It's a fun shape, but all those angles and flat spaces make it hard for every part of the fusilli to absorb sauce — and restaurants like Olive Garden are all about getting the customers as much sauce as possible.

Nevertheless, chefs Gregory Rubin and Daniele Triveo recommend substituting ordinary pantry pastas like bowtie with fusilli, in part because it still tastes great with particular sauces and holds onto just enough of whatever is poured on top of it. "I like this pasta with pesto as it coats the ridges of the noodle well," Rubin explains. Meanwhile, Christopher Li describes fusilli as "overlooked and misunderstood and under-appreciated" and recommends it as a substitute for macaroni.

A food term with an unfortunate translation so rough it will probably forever preclude it from being added to the options on Olive Garden's "Create Your Own Pasta" promotion, the pasta called strozzapreti in Italian has a name that means "priest stranglers."Served and tossed with any number of sauces (and under different names) throughout Italy for hundreds of years, strozzapreti is bite-sized, lumpy, and rarely identical when placed on a plate. One of multiple legends about how this pasta got its forever name is a tale in which greedy priests met their end by eating the dish too quickly.

Sprozzapreti has survived into the modern age, where it remains a favorite in Italian cuisine. "Strozzapreti is similar to a fusilli in a way," says Gregory Rubin. He adds," Our squid ink strozzapreti is one of my favorites. It's the perfect pasta for Frutti di Mare. The shape holds the sauce beautifully." And, according to Christopher Li, strozzapreti is an ideal all-around pasta in terms of being a method to showcase sauce, or sugo. "A good sugo's perfect vehicle," he says of strozzapreti.

At a place like Olive Garden, where consistency and efficiency are the priority and guarantee for customers across all locations, one isn't likely to ever come across a dish featuring maltagliati. Representing the very opposite of uniformity, maltagliati will never take the exact same form more than once due to the nature of its creation. Its name literally translates to "badly cut," and it arrives flat and in pieces that are often shaped like diamonds or triangles. Chefs never let good food go to waste, and Italian cooks in the Emilia-Romagna region long ago came up with maltagliati to use up pieces, bits, and scraps of dough leftover from making other types of pasta, such as tagliatelle.

As it's made from what could otherwise be considered garbage, maltagliati is an extremely informal and inexpensive pasta. That also lends it a populist appeal and a lot of potential uses for chefs and restaurants that aren't as focused on cookie-cutter consistency as Olive Garden. "We recently started serving maltagliati with white truffle. I think it's a clever combination pairing 'scraps' with a luxury ingredient," says Christopher Li, who also suggests using the pasta in place of more ordinary pasta shapes, such as bowties, also known as farfalle.