Bucatini (Italian:[bukaˈtiːni]), also known as perciatelli (Italian:[pertʃaˈtɛlli]), is a thick spaghetti-like pasta with a hole running through the center. It is common throughout Lazio, particularly Rome.
The similar ziti (Italian:[ˈdziːti]) consists of long hollow rods which are also smooth in texture and have square-cut edges; "cut ziti" are ziti cut into shorter tubes.[1] There is also a wider version of ziti, zitoni (Italian:[dziˈtoːni]).[2]
Bucatini is a tubed pasta made of hard durum wheat flour and water. Its length is 25–30 cm (10–12 in) with a 3 mm (1⁄8 in) diameter. The average cooking time is nine minutes.[citation needed]
Bucatini all'amatriciana, a dish prepared with bucatini pasta
In Italian cuisine, bucatini is served with buttery sauces, guanciale, vegetables, cheese, eggs, and anchovies or sardines. One of the most common sauces to serve with bucatini is the amatriciana sauce, bucatini all'amatriciana.[5] It is traditionally made with guanciale, a type of cured meat taken from the pork jowl.[6]
Standard pasta machines will roll out sheets of flat pasta which are then cut into ribbons to make flat, ribbon-style pasta like fettuccine, tagliatelle, or pappardelle. Bucatini, on the other hand, has to be extruded rather than rolled.
The pasta dough is fed into a machine that forces it through a perforated disk, very similar to a meat grinder. The shape of the pasta depends on the shape of the perforations. Bucatini are made with a disk with tiny circular perforations, which forces the pasta dough to emerge in long tubes. The tubes are then trimmed off to the desired length and then either cooked fresh or dried.
Bucatini can be made at home with a stand mixer and a pasta extruder.[8] Since it has a hole in the middle, raw homemade bucatini must be handled gently so as not to squeeze the hole shut prior to cooking.
