Mostaccioli substitutes

The same pasta under its Italian name: identical length, identical diagonal cut, identical smooth surface.

Best for

baked mostaccioli exactly as written, rich ricotta and sausage bakes, any mostaccioli recipe

This is not a substitute so much as the same product, and if an Italian deli or a well-stocked supermarket has it, buy it and change nothing at all. Because the walls are smooth, it behaves exactly as mostaccioli does: sauce sits inside the tube rather than clinging to the outside, so the dish needs body from cheese, cream or browned meat to hold together. It is much less common on American shelves than the ridged kind, which is the only reason it is not the default answer.

The penne almost every shop actually stocks, cut the same way as mostaccioli but with grooves running along the outside.

Best for

baked mostaccioli, red sauce with sausage, thinner marinara sauces, weeknight versions

The practical answer, and in most kitchens the better one. The ridges grip sauce that would slide off a smooth tube, so a baked mostaccioli made with penne rigate tastes more strongly sauced and less slippery, and it is more forgiving if your sauce is on the thin side. It is a real difference you can see on the fork rather than a technicality, but it is a difference in the dish's favour. Nobody at a buffet has ever objected.

Smooth tubes cut straight across rather than on the diagonal, slightly narrower and often a little longer.

Best for

baked mostaccioli, church supper and buffet trays, meat sauce, ricotta-heavy bakes

A truer match for real mostaccioli than ridged penne is, because the smooth surface is the same. The square-cut ends scoop marginally less sauce into each tube and the finished tray looks a little tidier and more uniform on the plate, but the bite is identical. Baked ziti and baked mostaccioli are honestly the same casserole under two regional names, so any baked ziti recipe will guide you if your mostaccioli recipe is vague.

Wider, distinctly thicker-walled ridged tubes.

Best for

trays held warm on a buffet, large-batch cooking, chunky meat sauce, dishes that get reheated

The most forgiving option on this list and the one to choose if timing is uncertain. Thick walls mean it takes a couple of minutes longer to boil and holds its shape through a long bake, so a tray still has chew ninety minutes into a buffet instead of turning pasty. The trade-off is that the wider tubes fill with sauce and the dish eats heavier, with fewer pieces per serving, so it reads as a richer casserole than a classic mostaccioli.

Curved shells with a deep cup and, usually, ridges on the outside.

Best for

ricotta-heavy baked mostaccioli, cheesy bakes, feeding children

Better in a ricotta bake than people expect, because each shell holds a spoonful of cheese and sauce in its cup rather than letting it run through an open tube. The dish comes out looking quite different, less neat and more rustic, and the bite is softer since shells are thinner-walled than rigatoni. Watch them closely in the water, as the thin edges soften well before the thicker spine does.

Short hollow ridged corkscrews, a spiral and a tube at once.

Best for

baked mostaccioli, cheesy sauces, leftovers that get reheated

Not a tube in spirit, but a very good functional stand-in, because the hollow centre and the spiral grooves both trap sauce. It holds far more sauce per piece than a straight smooth tube, so the same quantity coats the pasta more heavily and the pan looks less wet while the dish tastes richer. Pieces are shorter, so a forkful has more of them and the texture reads bouncier rather than neat sliced tube.

Always in the cupboard, and it works, though it changes the character of the dish more than any other option here.

Best for

baked mostaccioli in a pinch, cheese-heavy versions, feeding children

Elbows are much smaller and thinner-walled, so they drink up more sauce and cook softer. The result comes out denser and more casserole-like, closer to a baked macaroni than to mostaccioli, and it will not hold up if the tray sits warm for long. Undercook by two full minutes and hold back a little sauce at first, because the smaller pieces absorb more than the recipe expects and a dish that looked wet going in can come out dry.