What does bucatini mean?
Bucatini is a variety of Italian pasta consisting of long, thick strands that resemble spaghetti but are distinguished by a hollow channel running through the center of each piece. The name comes from the Italian word buco, meaning "hole," a direct reference to this defining feature. Slightly thicker than spaghetti, bucatini has a satisfyingly chewy texture when cooked al dente, and its hollow core allows sauces to penetrate the strand itself rather than merely coating the surface. This quality makes it especially prized for rich, hearty sauces — most famously in bucatini all'Amatriciana, the classic Roman dish made with tomato, guanciale, and pecorino cheese. In English, the word functions as a mass noun and appears almost entirely in cooking and dining contexts, on menus, in recipes, and in food writing. For cooks seeking more substance and sauce-carrying capacity than ordinary spaghetti provides, bucatini is a popular and increasingly widely available choice.
nounA type of Italian pasta shaped like thick spaghetti but hollow, with a hole running through the length of each strand.
- Thick, hollow strands of Italian pasta resembling spaghetti with a hole through the center; also called perciatelli.
"The sauce clung beautifully to the bucatini, filling its hollow center with every bite."
"For dinner she tossed the bucatini with guanciale, tomato, and pecorino in the Roman style."
"The restaurant's menu featured bucatini all'Amatriciana as one of its signature dishes."
Bucatini is typically treated as a mass noun in English. When a plural is needed — for example, when referring to multiple individual strands or distinct servings — the form remains bucatini, following Italian convention.
"Two bucatini lay across the edge of the bowl, their hollow ends glistening with sauce."
Bucatini is basically spaghetti with a secret tunnel down the middle — and that hole is exactly why it's the only pasta worthy of Rome's famous Amatriciana sauce.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bucatini
Bucatini comes from the Italian bucatino, a diminutive of buco meaning "hole," which derives from the Latin bucca, originally referring to the cheek or mouth. The word thus literally describes pasta pierced through the middle. English borrowed the term directly from Italian in the twentieth century as the pasta became known internationally, alongside related borrowings such as spaghetti and macaroni. The Latin root bucca also survives in other English words, including buccal, relating to the cheek.
How bucatini is actually used
Bucatini is used almost exclusively in culinary contexts and is typically treated as a mass noun in English, though a plural form exists in reference to individual strands or servings. It carries no figurative or informal senses.
Easily confused with bucatini
Spaghetti is a solid strand of pasta, whereas bucatini is thicker and hollow, with a hole running through its center.
Perciatelli is essentially the same hollow pasta as bucatini, the name being an alternate regional term rather than a different shape.