Ziti vs. Penne: Differences Between the Popular Pasta Types

Ziti is a short, hollow, extruded pasta shape with a smooth texture. Originally from Naples in the Campania region of Italy, a defining characteristic of ziti pasta is its flat ends, blunt cut at ninety degrees rather than at an acute angle, like penne. At the grocery store, you can buy packages of pre-broken ziti with inch-long individual noodles or unbroken ziti with ten-inch-long tubes that you break by hand before cooking.

Ziti pasta comes in handy for recipes featuring thick, creamy sauces since its large size makes it prominent, and its hollow shape allows it to capture and deliver sauce in each bite. Typically, chefs use ziti in casserole-style baked dishes since its smooth, thin walls become soft and buttery in the oven.

Similar Italian pasta types include penne and rigatoni.

Penne is a short, thick, extruded pasta shape. Originally from Genoa in the Liguria region of Italy, a defining characteristic of penne is its ends, which pasta makers cut at a dramatic angle, so each tip comes to a point. The word “penne” is Italian for “quill,” a nod to its pointed tips.

Penne works well in recipes with thick cream sauces since its large size prevents it from getting lost, and its hollow shape allows it to capture and deliver pasta sauce in every bite. Penne is not commonly used in spaghetti, carbonara, alfredo, or olive oil sauces because it cannot properly hold thinner sauces. Instead, chefs use it in fresh pasta dishes (tossing it with sauce for immediate service) since it has a lot of structure, giving a firm texture to the entrée.

Similar kinds of pasta include ziti and rigatoni.

Typically, ziti recipes call for a brief boil before tossing the pasta with other ingredients and baking it in the oven in a casserole-style dish. Popular baked ziti recipes include:

1. 1. Pasta al forno: The most common way to prepare ziti, pasta al forno—Italian for “pasta to the oven”—is a cheesy baked casserole dish consisting of rich tomato sauce, ground beef or Italian sausage, and melted mozzarella cheese (or ricotta cheese, in a dish similar to Italian lasagna).
2. 2. Ziti and cheese: For an Italian-American take, try substituting ziti in your next baked macaroni and cheese recipe.
3. 3. Eggplant ziti: Eggplant is a popular vegetarian substitute for meat in Italian recipes. Try baking cubed eggplant, tossing it together with sauce and boiled ziti noodles, and then finishing it all off in the oven topped with Parmesan cheese for a flavorful vegetarian casserole.

Typically, penne recipes call for boiling the pasta till it’s al dente before tossing the cooked pasta with sauce and serving it immediately. Popular penne pasta recipes include:

1. 1. Penne all’arrabbiata: “Arrabbiata” means “fiery” or “angry” in Italian, a nod to the hot chilies in pasta all’arrabbiata. Arrabbiata sauce originated in Rome, Italy, where the comfort food remains popular. The dish now enjoys worldwide popularity as a spicy alternative to the standard marinara sauce.
2. 2. Penne alla vodka: Penne is a popular choice with thick vodka sauces because the hollow noodles trap and absorb the chunky sauce.
3. 3. Pasta salads: Recipes for American pasta salads often call for penne noodles since they are strong enough to maintain their structure when tossed with vegetables, cheese, and meats.
4. 4. Chunky marinara: Long, thin spaghetti noodles are the pasta of choice for thin marinara sauces. Thicker sauces pair better with penne since the pasta stands out and won’t get lost or outshined.

While ziti and penne are both tubular kinds of pasta that pair well with thick or chunky sauces, they have some key differences:

• End shape: The clearest distinction between ziti and penne is in the shape of their cut ends: Ziti has a square-angle cut and a rectangular shape, while penne has an angled cut that gives them a pointed shape.
• Texture: Ziti almost always has a smooth texture, though you can occasionally find ridged versions of the tubular pasta. On the other hand, penne can be either ridged or smooth (though ridged is the most widely available in North American grocery stores).
• Width: In general, ziti noodles are larger than penne noodles.
• Uses: Traditional ziti recipes are usually casserole-style dishes that call for a quick boil before tossing it with sauce and baking it. This technique takes advantage of the wide, smooth walls of ziti noodles, which become soft and buttery in the oven. In contrast, penne recipes are usually fresh pasta dishes. Chefs boil the penne to al dente before immediately tossing it with sauce and serving. This technique takes advantage of the firm texture of penne noodles, which give an al-dente quality to a meal.

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