Stelline substitute

Best substitute

Acini de Pepe

Use the same amount by volume or weight as the stelline you are replacing

Best for chicken broth

Close match

Use acini de pepe, alphabet pasta, or any other pastina at 1:1 by volume and cook it for the same short time. Stelline does two things in a bowl: it gives soft little bites to spoon up, and it sheds starch that thickens a thin broth into something that coats the spoon. Any pasta of the same tiny size does both. If all you have is long pasta, snap angel hair or spaghetti into quarter-inch pieces and it works surprisingly well.

Other stelline substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Alphabet Pasta or Any Other Pastina
Close match
Use the same amount by volume or weight
Letters, tiny tubes, rings (anellini), grains of rice (risoni), or the generic bagged pastina sold in most Italian sections.
What changes
All the same dough at the same scale.
Best for
kids' soup, chicken and broth, buttered pastina, Italian wedding soup
Functionally identical to stelline and just as fun on a spoon, which makes it the swap to reach for if the stars were for a child rather than for a recipe. Cook times vary by a minute or two between shapes, so taste rather than trust the box. Flat shapes such as letters clump together slightly more than stars do, so stir the pot in the first minute.
3Ditalini
Different texture
Use the same amount by volume
Very short tubes, roughly twice the size of stelline.
What changes
The standard soup pasta in a lot of Italian-American cooking and always in stock.
Best for
minestrone, pasta e fagioli, chicken soup, Italian wedding soup
Because the pieces are bigger and hollow, they hold broth inside and eat as distinct chewy bites rather than dissolving into the spoonful the way stelline does. That makes the soup feel more substantial and less like a broth, which is often an improvement for adults and a problem for toddlers. Ditalini also sheds less starch per piece, so the broth stays thinner; if you want body, let it cook a minute or two longer.
4Orzo
Different texture
Use the same amount by volume
Rice-shaped semolina pasta, about three times the size of stelline.
What changes
Widely available and a good soup pasta in its own right.
Best for
chicken soup, lemon and egg soups, vegetable soup, brothy dishes for adults
Orzo is denser and chewier, so instead of the soft, almost porridge-like spoonful stelline gives you, the soup gets discrete grains with a firm bite, closer to a rice soup. It also releases a lot of starch, so a clear broth will turn cloudy and noticeably thicker; add a splash more stock. Takes 8 to 10 minutes rather than 6 to 8.
5Broken Angel Hair, Capellini, or Thin Spaghetti
Close match
Use the same amount by weight, snapped into quarter-inch pieces
The cupboard answer, and a much better one than it sounds.
What changes
Hold a small bundle of thin dried pasta over the pot and snap it repeatedly into short lengths.
Best for
chicken broth, any soup where stelline was the only pasta, improvising with no shopping trip
The pieces are short splinters rather than neat stars, so the mouthfeel is very close but the look is rustic. Thin pasta cooks fast, around three to four minutes, so add it near the end or it goes to mush and clouds the broth badly. This is also how sopa de fideo is made, which is a good sign that it works: broken thin pasta in broth is a real technique, not a compromise.
6Fine Couscous
Taste and texture differ
Start with half the volume of pasta called for
The least-good option, listed because many people have it and few realise how differently it behaves.
What changes
Best for
last resort, thick soups where a little body is wanted
Couscous is steamed semolina granules that swell fast and drink an enormous amount of liquid. Dropped into a soup it can turn a clear broth into a thick, slightly gluey mass within minutes, and it keeps absorbing as the pot sits. Use half as much as the recipe calls for in pasta, add it in the last two minutes only, and serve immediately. If the soup is meant to be brothy, skip this and use broken thin pasta instead.

What is Stelline?

Stelline is a tiny star-shaped pastina about a quarter of an inch across, also sold as stellette or star pasta, and in a bowl of soup it is doing two jobs at once: giving soft little bites to spoon up, and shedding enough starch to thicken a thin broth into something that coats the spoon.

Cooking tips

Cook stelline or any pastina in the soup only if you are serving it straight away. Tiny pasta keeps absorbing liquid, and a pot of star soup left on the stove for twenty minutes turns into a thick paste. For leftovers, cook the pasta separately in salted water and spoon it into each bowl.
Stelline is a genuine thickener as well as a shape. There is a lot of surface area on those little stars, so they release enough starch to visibly body up a clear chicken broth. If you swap to a larger shape such as ditalini or orzo and the soup comes out thinner than you remember, that is why, and letting it simmer an extra couple of minutes will help.
Six to eight minutes is the usual time for dried stelline, but taste at four. Pastina goes from raw to disintegrating quickly, and once the stars have lost their points they will not come back.
Buttered stelline with a little grated parmesan and a splash of the cooking water is the classic Italian sick-day supper and children's first pasta, and every substitute on this list works for it too. Cook it in broth rather than water for that version and stir the butter in off the heat.
If a recipe specifically calls for stelline in Italian wedding soup, the stars are the traditional shape but acini de pepe and ditalini are both standard in that soup as well. Nothing about the recipe depends on the star; it is the tiny scale that matters.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best substitute for stelline?

Acini de pepe at 1:1, because it is the same tiny size, cooks in the same time, and thickens the broth the same way. Alphabet pasta or any generic pastina works equally well, and is the better choice if the point of the stars was to get a child to eat the soup. Ditalini and orzo both work too, but they are bigger and give the soup a chunkier feel.

Can I just leave the pasta out of the soup?

You can, and the soup will still be good, but it will be a brothier and less filling bowl than intended, because pastina is doing real work as a thickener and as bulk. If you leave it out, either accept a thin soup or add something else starchy: a handful of rice, a diced potato, some small beans, or torn bread in the bowl. Reduce the broth slightly as well, since nothing is going to absorb it.

Is stelline the same as pastina?

Pastina is the general category, meaning any of the very small pasta shapes used in soup, and stelline is one specific shape within it, the star. So all stelline is pastina, but a bag labelled pastina might contain stars, tiny tubes, grains, dots, or letters. In practice they are interchangeable, so if a recipe says stelline and your shop only has pastina, buy the pastina.

How do I stop tiny pasta from turning the soup into sludge?

Two rules. Add it in the last six to eight minutes rather than at the start, and if there will be leftovers, boil it separately and add it to each bowl at the table. Tiny pasta never stops absorbing; a bowl of star soup refrigerated overnight will be almost solid the next day. If that has already happened, thin it with hot broth rather than water so you do not wash out the seasoning.

Can I use broken spaghetti or angel hair instead of stelline?

Yes, and it works better than people expect. Snap thin dried pasta into quarter-inch pieces straight over the pot. The mouthfeel is close and the broth thickens the same way; only the look changes. Because thin pasta cooks in three or four minutes, add it right at the end. This is the same technique behind sopa de fideo, so it is a real method rather than a compromise.

Related substitutes

More pasta & noodles substitutes

Stelline substitute

Other stelline substitutes

2Alphabet Pasta or Any Other Pastina

3Ditalini

4Orzo

5Broken Angel Hair, Capellini, or Thin Spaghetti

6Fine Couscous