Here's everything worth knowing about pasta, corkscrew and how to pick it, what it is, how to store it, and what to use instead, plus 7 recipes to cook tonight.

What is pasta, corkscrew?

Corkscrew pasta is the short, twisted spiral shape you probably know as rotini or fusilli: a little helix of durum semolina that looks like it was wound around a pencil. Cavatappi (the hollow, tighter corkscrew) belongs to the same family.

The twists are the whole point. Those grooves and ridges trap sauce and small bits of meat or vegetable in every spiral, which is why corkscrew is one of the best shapes for clinging sauces and for pasta salad.

How to Use Corkscrew Pasta

Dried corkscrew cooks in about 7 to 9 minutes for al dente. It holds its shape and its bite well, so it forgives a busy stove better than delicate long pasta.

It is a workhorse for baked casseroles and skillet dinners, where the spirals hold sauce through the oven without turning to mush. See the cheesy, crowd-sized Sausage Mozzarella Supper for a Crowd or a classic Tuna Pasta Casserole.

The same grip makes it the default for cold pasta salad. The twists hold dressing and catch peas, diced peppers, and cubes of cheese in their grooves, so every forkful comes out evenly coated, as in Garlicky Pasta Chicken Salad.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Corkscrew wants sauces with grip and texture: chunky tomato-and-meat sauces, pesto, creamy cheese sauces, brothy vegetable mixtures. It is also a friendly shape for kids, since the spirals are easy to spear.

What it does not love is a thin, watery sauce. With nothing to cling to, the sauce runs off the smooth outer curve and pools, leaving the pasta bland. Match the corkscrew to something with body, or thicken a loose sauce with a spoonful of starchy pasta water.

The common cooking mistake is overcooking in a baked dish. Pasta keeps softening in the oven as it absorbs sauce, so undercook it by a minute or two when you boil it, then let the casserole finish the job.

Pull it al dente before baking and it stays toothsome instead of going mushy.

What to Substitute

The closest swaps are the shapes corkscrew already overlaps with: rotini and fusilli are essentially the same spiral under different names, and cavatappi is the hollow version. Any of them works one-for-one.

Beyond the spirals, short ridged tubes like penne or rigatoni catch sauce well and hold up the same way in casseroles and salads. Medium shells and farfalle (bow ties) are decent stand-ins for pasta salad.

Smooth shapes like elbow macaroni will do in a pinch but grab less sauce, so the dish reads a touch plainer.

Buying and Storage

Corkscrew sits in the regular pasta aisle, usually labeled rotini or fusilli; tri-color boxes (plain, spinach, tomato) are common and add color to salads without changing how it cooks. Bronze-die and imported brands have a rougher surface that holds sauce even better.

Dried corkscrew keeps about two years in a sealed container in a cool, dark cupboard. Once the box is open, move it to a jar so it stays dry and does not pick up cabinet odors, and discard it if you ever spot pantry-moth webbing.

Cooked corkscrew holds three to four days in the fridge. For pasta salad made ahead, toss it with a little extra dressing before chilling, since the spirals keep drinking it up and a salad that looked right at lunch can taste dry by dinner.

For general boiling and salting basics, see the main pasta guide.

Quick facts

In Chinese

面食，开瓶器

British (UK) term

Pasta, corkscrew

en français

pâtes, tire-bouchon

en español

pasta, sacacorchos

Recipes using pasta, corkscrew

There are 7 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 7 recipes