There is a pasta dish I make every once in a while that calls for fusilli pasta. When I first started making it I never had trouble finding fusilli at the store, but lately it’s been nearly impossible to find any.
Some folks may ask “Why not use rotini?” In my opinion, it’s not the same thing. Fusilli is a thicker pasta where the corkscrew shape is not so tight. Rotini, like what I would use to make pasta salad, is thinner and has a much tighter spiral. This is what I think of as fusilli and this is what I think of as rotini. However it should be noted that the fusilli photo says it is often referred to as rotini in the US and the fusilli page says it has been proposed to be merged with the rotini page.
To make things even more confusing, when fusilli first disappeared from my regular grocery store, I found something called “tortiglione” which looked more like fusilli than rotini, and may be the same thing? Although I have also seen “tortiglione” that is more tube shaped rather than spiral. (Side note, we really need to get some ANSI standards for pasta names.) But my regular store has redone their pasta aisle and no longer carries the tortiglione either.
So I went on a quest this weekend to find fusilli. I looked at two chain grocery stores, a locally-owned grocery store, Target, and one of those “natural foods” stores. Target has “gluten free” fusilli but no regular fusilli. I found something fusilli-looking at another store but it was labeled “rotini” (which I wound up buying). But nobody had anything actually labeled as “fusilli”. :mad:
Funny, I checked Target but didn’t even think of going to Wal-Mart. Mostly because I avoid Wal-Mart like the plague. I guess I’ll have to give them a shot.
Ordering pasta online just seems so unnecessary, but if that’s what it takes, maybe that’s what I need to do.
Raditore is even harder to find at the store. So perfect at picking up a thinner sauce and holding it in the nooks and crannies. When I do find it I buy a half dozen or so boxes.
