Characteristics, History and Pairings
The story of this shape of pasta is bizarre: it was first created in the 1970s in a well-known pasta production plant in Emilia. Due to a glitch in the machine, instead of making a straight ridged pasta, the extruder produced a helical shape resembling a “spring”. At the time, singer Adriano Celentano (known as il Molleggiato, “Springy”, because of his dancing moves) was at the peak of his popularity. Although there is no proof, tradition has it that his nickname inspired the name of this new shape of pasta, celentani.
Because of its helical shape, celentani pasta is also known as cavatappi (corkscrews), spirali (spirals), and amori (lovers).
Cooking Time
11 minutes
Region of Origin
Celentani pasta comes from Parma, where the pasta production plant that first made it is based.
Best Pairings
The curly tubular shape of this pasta is perfect to capture all types of meat, vegetable and fish sauces.
This pasta is so versatile that is often served with traditional Italian sauces, mainly with a tomato base, such as amatriciana sauce, but it’s also great enjoyed with basil pesto.
Celentani pasta is very popular in the United States and has become the shape of choice for mac’n cheese and other dishes with cheese sauces.
Ingredients
Durum wheat semolina and water.
Average nutritional values for 100 g of raw product
– Energy: 1555 kJ / 367 Kcal
– Fat: 1.5 g
– of which saturates: 0.2 g
– Carbohydrate: 73.0 g
– of which sugars: 3.0 g
– Fibre: 2.5 g
– Protein: 14.0 g
– Salt: 0.01g
Cooking Tips
Do you cook pasta in a sustainable way? Here are a few tips that can make a difference.
1. Don’t waste water, use only the necessary amount: 1 litre of water for every 100 grammes of dry pasta.
2. Cooking with a lid will save time and gas or electricity and the water will boil sooner.
3. Add the salt when the water starts boiling and add the pasta immediately after.
4. Put the lid back on halfway through the cooking time, switch off the gas (or electric hob) and finish cooking your pasta in the hot water inside the covered pot.
