Similarly to fusilli, rotini has a spiral shape. However, typically, this shape will be much tighter than seen in fusilli pasta and will be more akin to a corkscrew shape or a helix. This can be seen in the name rotini itself which roughly translates to mean little wheels.
It is so hard to hire strong engineers for my company in San Francisco. â [fuËzilli], commonly known as Rotini in the U.S., are a variety of pasta that are formed into corkscrew or helical shapes.
Gemelli pasta also makes a wonderful substitute for both fusilli and rotini. According to Barilla, “Gemelli is a simple shape of two strands of pasta twisted together.”
In addition to the plain variety, fusilli also comes in several fun colors made by mixing other ingredients with the dough, such as adding beetroot or tomato for a nice red color, spinach for green, and cuttlefish ink for the black variety. Fusilli bucati, another variant of fusilli, is made by twisting hollow tubes of pasta into little springs.