What does cannelloni mean?
Cannelloni is an Italian word for a variety of pasta made in large, hollow cylinders, typically around eight to ten centimetres long. The tubes are boiled or softened, then stuffed with fillings such as minced meat, ricotta and spinach, or other cheeses, arranged in a baking dish, covered with tomato sauce or béchamel, and baked until bubbling. The name comes from the Italian cannellone, meaning 'large tube' or 'big reed', a diminutive-based formation on canna ('reed' or 'cane'), which itself descends from Latin canna. Cannelloni is used almost exclusively in the plural in English, reflecting its Italian plural form. It belongs firmly to the register of food writing, menus, and everyday cooking talk rather than formal discourse. Its closest cousin is manicotti, the Italian-American adaptation of the same concept, though the two names are often used interchangeably abroad. Rich, comforting, and unmistakably associated with family-style Italian cooking, cannelloni is a useful word for anyone describing pasta dishes beyond the familiar spaghetti and penne.
nounCannelloni is a type of Italian pasta consisting of large cylindrical tubes, typically filled with meat, cheese, or spinach, covered with sauce, and baked.
- Large cylindrical pasta tubes filled with meat, cheese, or vegetables, covered in sauce, and baked as a savoury dish.
"She baked the cannelloni with ricotta and spinach under a generous layer of béchamel."
"The vegetarian cannelloni, filled with butternut squash and sage, disappeared within minutes."
"For Sunday dinner, nonna rolled each cannelloni by hand before layering them in the baking dish."
Cannelloni is a plural noun in both Italian and English; the Italian singular is cannellone, but this is virtually never used in English. Treat it like spaghetti or ravioli — always plural.
"These cannelloni need another ten minutes in the oven."
Cannelloni literally means 'big reeds' in Italian — the pasta tubes were named after the hollow canes they resemble.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cannelloni
Cannelloni entered English from Italian, borrowed in the twentieth century alongside the growing popularity of Italian cuisine internationally. The Italian word cannellone is an augmentative of canna, meaning 'reed' or 'tube', which derives from Latin canna of the same meaning; Latin in turn likely adopted the word from Greek kanna. The same root gave English such words as canal, channel, cane, and cannula, all sharing the notion of a hollow tube. As the dish spread from Italy to Britain and America after the Second World War, the plural form cannelloni became the standard shape of the word in English, with the singular remaining essentially unused outside Italian.
How cannelloni is actually used
Always used in the plural in English; the singular form 'cannellone' exists in Italian but is rarely encountered. The word carries warm, domestic connotations of Italian home cooking and comfort food. In North America, manicotti is the more familiar equivalent term.
Easily confused with cannelloni
Manicotti is the Italian-American equivalent of cannelloni — a similar large stuffed pasta tube, but the name derives from Italian-American usage rather than the Italian term.
Cannoli are small fried Sicilian pastry shells filled with sweet ricotta cream, whereas cannelloni are large pasta tubes filled with savoury ingredients and baked.