Garganelli is a special Italian pasta with a special shape. This type of pasta is hollow, ribbed and can be made with or without eggs. A beautiful pasta that we would like to tell you more about!
What is garganelli?
Garganelli is an egg pasta that consists of short, ribbed tubes. This garganelli looks like the well-known penne, but it is really different. The garganelli are made completely differently and this is clearly visible in the pasta. With the garganelli, the pasta dough is rolled on top of each other. This is one of the most distinguishing points of the pasta.
Traditionally, garganelli are made with a ribbed wooden board and a stick. This creates the grooves in this particular pasta shape. Below we tell you more about how this type of pasta is made.
How is garganelli made?
Garganelli is a type of pasta that can be made with or without eggs. The garganelli from our pasta shop are made with eggs. This means that in addition to durum wheat and water, eggs are added to the dough.
These three ingredients are kneaded together into a beautiful pasta dough. This is the basis of every pasta by the way. The pasta dough then goes through a bronze mold which creates the shape of the pasta. In this case the shape of garganelli.
After the pasta has received its final shape, the pasta only needs to dry and be packaged.
Tradition of garganelli
According to Italian legend, garganelli was created by accident. This happened when a poor housewife was preparing tortellini. To her horror, she discovered that her cat was eating the filling, so she could no longer use it.
To save the food, she decided to roll the squares of pasta dough around a stick and over a loom comb. In this way, the shape of garganelli was created and the dinner was saved!
All great stories about how a type of pasta came to be should of course be taken with a grain of salt. But we can imagine that the garganelli was created this way!
Recipes for garganelli
Garganelli is a pasta that you can use in different pasta dishes. You can use the garganelli for dishes with fish and meat, but also for a vegetarian pasta dish of course.
The pasta is so versatile because the pasta is hollow. The pasta sauce creeps into the hollow of the pasta and this makes your dish even tastier. In addition, the ridges on the outside ensure that sauce sticks well to the garganelli. In short, a pasta you really must try!
A delicious dish with which we like to combine garganelli is pasta bolognese. As mentioned before, garganelli is a versatile pasta and you can therefore use it in all sorts of dishes.
Would you like more inspiration in the area of pasta dishes? Take a look at all our pasta dishes and get inspired!
How should you cook garganelli?
Just like any pasta you cook garganelli is boiling water. Add the garganelli to the boiling water and cook the pasta for about 8 – 9 minutes until tender. Cooking this type of pasta does not take much time. So if you have little time, the garganelli is a good pasta type to cook.
You can always save more time by applying the tips and tricks from our blog ‘How to cook pasta quickly’. This blog contains all kinds of tips to cook pasta even faster. And this, of course, is always handy.
We have listed the steps for cooking garganelli below. Stick to these steps and you will see that you cook the garganelli just right.
Garganelli are cooked in the following 6 steps:
Use a large pan to cook the garganelli in
Take a large pan, the bigger the better. The garganelli must be able to move around in the pan. This prevents the garganelli from sticking together. Fill the large pan for 75% with hot water, by using hot water you save time because the water needs less time to boil. Do you want to save a lot of time? Then use a kettle so the water is already boiling.
Add some salt to the water
Make your pasta dish more delicious by adding a little extra salt to the boiling water. The salt gives the flavors in a dish an extra boost. This makes all the flavors more intense and delicious! Be careful, because too much salt can ruin your dish. We keep a guideline of about 10 grams of salt per 3 liters of water. You can read more about pasta cooking and salt in our blog: ‘Cooking pasta with or without salt’.
Do not use a lid when cooking garganelli
By not using a lid, the cooking water will not foam. For this reason, we always recommend not using a lid. This also makes it easier to keep the pasta moving. Read more about this in our next tip.
Keep the garganelli moving
Like any pasta, garganelli have a tendency to stick together. By keeping the pasta moving, you can prevent this from happening. Stir every minute with a spaghetti spoon in the pan. In this way you keep the garganelli moving sufficiently.
Taste the garganelli before draining
If you want to know if the garganelli is good, then it is wise to taste the garganelli. You do this before draining, so you can determine whether it is necessary to cook the pasta longer. In addition, you will immediately taste whether you have put enough salt in water. You can choose to add some more salt to taste.
Add the garganelli immediately to the pasta sauce
In Italy, they always add the pasta to the pasta sauce right away. This makes it less likely that the garganelli will stick together. By doing this, you never have problems with sticky pasta. A good tip that we would like to give you.
How long should you cook garganelli?
Garganelli should be cooked in 8 to 9 minutes. To know the exact cooking time, we recommend you always look at the packaging of the pasta. If you keep to this, you will see that the pasta is cooked just right.
If you like a harder pasta with more bite, we recommend cooking the pasta one minute shorter than stated on the packaging. This way you cook the garganelli ‘al dente’. Taste for yourself when you think the pasta is good enough to use. You can read more tips on how to do this in our blog: ‘How to cook pasta al dente!
How many garganelli do you need per person?
The number of grams of garganelli you need per person depends on the dish you want to make with them. For a heavy, well-filled sauce, use less garganelli and for a lighter sauce use more.
Generally, we recommend about 100 grams of pasta per person. In our opinion, this is often the perfect amount of pasta to use for an average eater. If you are someone who is a large or just a small eater, we recommend adjusting the number of grams.
In addition, we recommend looking at the type of sauce you want to combine the pasta with. Do you choose a hearty sauce? Then use a little less pasta, 80 grams per person.
We understand that determining the right amount of pasta can be tricky. If you’re also having trouble determining how much pasta you need, read more about the quantities of pasta per person on our blog: “How much pasta do you cook per person?”.