Rotelle (wagon wheel) pasta is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 26 recipes to get you started.

What is rotelle (wagon wheel) pasta?

Rotelle is the wagon-wheel pasta, a small round disc with a hub in the middle and short spokes running out to a thin rim. The name comes from the Italian for little wheels, and most American boxes sell it as wagon wheel pasta.

The gaps between the spokes are open windows, not solid pasta.

Those open spokes are the trick. Sauce, peas, and small bits of vegetable lodge in the gaps and the hub, so a forkful holds more than its size suggests.

It is also the pasta kids reach for first, which makes it a quiet workhorse in family kitchens.

Cooking With Rotelle

The shape is sturdier than it looks. The rim and spokes hold together through boiling and a long bake, so rotelle works in cold salads and hot casseroles alike without falling apart.

Dried rotelle takes about 9 to 11 minutes to al dente. The thin rim cooks faster than the thicker hub, so taste a wheel at the center to be sure the middle is done before you drain.

Watch the pot near the end. Boiled too long, the spokes soften and snap, and you lose the wheels that make the shape fun. Pull them a minute early if the dish bakes or sits in hot sauce. For salting the water and judging al dente, see the pasta hub.

Sauces and Pairings

Rotelle wants a sauce with small pieces to catch. Diced vegetables, peas, flaked tuna, and ground meat all settle into the open spokes, the way they do in Rotelle with Smoked Turkey, Broccoli & Peppers.

A medium tomato or tomato-cream sauce coats the rim and pools in the gaps, as in the Wagon Wheels with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce and the Rotelle with Provencal Tomato Sauce. It also makes a cheerful cold pasta salad, holding dressing in every wheel.

The mistake is a thick, heavy ragu with big chunks. Large pieces clog or slide past the small spokes instead of catching, so the sauce never grips the pasta. Keep the chunks small and the sauce medium-bodied.

Substitutes

Rotini and fusilli are the easiest swaps, spirals that grab the same small pieces and dressings and play the same fun role in a kids' meal or salad. Use them one for one.

When the look matters less, a medium shell or ridged penne carries the same sauces. None of these match the wheel silhouette, so if the wheel itself is the point, as in a children's dish, there is no real stand-in.

Buying and Storing

Choose rotelle made from durum wheat or semolina, which the box will list. The hard wheat is what keeps the thin spokes from going to mush and holds the wheel together through a chill or a bake, while soft-wheat versions break down fast.

Plain and tri-color wheels cook the same, so pick the colored ones only for the look.

Dried rotelle keeps for about two years sealed in a cupboard that stays cool and dry, and remains usable well beyond that with some loss of texture.

Cooked rotelle holds three to four days in the fridge. Reheat it in sauce rather than dry, since the thin rims go brittle in the microwave.

Quick facts

Where to find rotelle (wagon wheel) pasta: Rotelle (wagon wheel) pasta is usually found in the pasta section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

In Chinese

面食，ROTELLE（车轮）

British (UK) term

Pasta, rotelle (wagon wheel)

en français

pâtes, rotelle (roue de chariot)

en español

pasta, rotelle (rueda de carro)

Recipes using rotelle (wagon wheel) pasta

There are 26 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 26 rotelle (wagon wheel) pasta recipes