Tubettini substitute

Best substitute

Ditalini

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

Best for pasta e fagioli

Close match

Use ditalini at 1:1 if you can get it, since it is the same little tube just a size or two larger. Otherwise small elbow macaroni is the easiest supermarket swap, and acini de pepe or pastina works if you want the pasta to stay smaller than the beans in the pot. In tubettini the pasta is not the flavour, it is the bite and the body, so any small shape that fits on a spoon alongside the beans will make the dish work.

Other tubettini substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Small Elbow Macaroni
Close match
Use the same amount by weight or volume
A curved tube instead of a straight one, and the shape every supermarket carries.
What changes
Same wall thickness, same chew, same starch release. It curls around beans rather than nesting between them, so the bowl looks a bit busier.
Best for
pasta e fagioli, minestrone, macaroni salad, brothy soups
Buy the smallest elbows on the shelf, sometimes labelled salad macaroni, which is often the exact same product as tubetti under a different name. Full-size elbows are too big for a soup spoon.
3Acini de Pepe or Pastina
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight, but check the pot at 5 minutes
Tiny solid pasta rather than tubes.
What changes
They cook in about five minutes and, because they are solid, they shed more starch into the liquid, so a brothy soup turns cloudier and slightly thicker. Some people like that in pasta e fagioli, others want a clear broth.
Best for
minestrone, brothy soups, soup for small children
There is no hollow centre to trap broth, so each bite carries less liquid. Add these to the pot in the last five minutes only or they turn to mush.
4Orzo
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Rice-shaped and solid.
What changes
It behaves like acini de pepe, releasing enough starch to visibly thicken and cloud the broth, and it goes soft faster than a tube because there is no hollow to hold its shape. Fine for flavour, a slight change to the look.
Best for
minestrone, chicken soup, cold pasta salad
If you want a clean broth, boil the orzo separately in salted water, drain it and add it to bowls at the table.
5Broken Spaghetti or Broken Linguine
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Snap dry strands into half-inch pieces.
What changes
The classic Italian-American pantry fix, and it is a genuinely good one: same semolina, same chew, and the short pieces sit on a spoon fine. They just look rustic rather than uniform.
Best for
pasta e fagioli, minestrone, any brothy bean soup
Break the pasta inside a folded tea towel or a zip bag or it will fire across the kitchen. Cook time is whatever the box says, minus nothing, since breaking it does not speed it up.
6Small Shells or Mini Farfalle
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Bigger than tubettini and they scoop broth in a way tubes do not, which some cooks prefer.
What changes
The trade-off is that the pasta becomes the biggest thing in the bowl instead of an equal partner with the beans.
Best for
minestrone, pasta salad, kid-friendly soups
Best when the soup is thick. In a thin broth the shells sink and hold water, so the last spoonful is all pasta.

What is Tubettini?

Tubettini is Tubettini are very small, straight-cut tubes of dried semolina pasta, roughly the size of a grain of rice, sold in the US as tubetti or salad macaroni and used mainly in soups.

Cooking tips

Dried pasta swells to roughly triple its dry volume, and it keeps swelling in the pot after the heat is off. If the soup is not being eaten immediately, boil the tubettini separately, drain it and spoon it into the bowls, otherwise by tomorrow you will have a casserole instead of pasta e fagioli.
Small tubes drink seasoning, so cook them in liquid that already tastes right. If you are cooking them straight in the soup, taste and salt the broth before the pasta goes in, not after, because afterwards the pasta has absorbed the salt and the broth reads flat.
Any small shape you use will thicken the soup by shedding starch. That is why pasta e fagioli looks creamy without cream. If your substitute is a solid shape rather than a tube, it will thicken more, so hold back a cup of stock to loosen the pot at the end.
Cook substitutes one to two minutes shy of the box time when they are going into a hot soup. Residual heat finishes them, and a small shape goes from al dente to blown out in under a minute.
Tubettini, tubetti and salad macaroni are frequently the same pasta under three labels, so check the bag by size rather than by name before you decide you cannot find it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between tubettini and ditalini?

Size, and nothing else. They are cut from the same extruded tube of semolina dough. Ditalini are the little thimbles, usually about a quarter inch long, and tubettini are the smaller cut, closer to an eighth of an inch. Italian brands are not consistent about it either, so a bag labelled tubetti from one maker can be the size of another maker's ditalini. Use whichever you find and adjust the boil time by a minute.

Can I just leave the pasta out of pasta e fagioli?

You can, and you will get a good bowl of brothy beans, but it stops being pasta e fagioli, which literally means pasta and beans. The pasta is doing two jobs: it gives the soup a second texture so every spoonful is not uniformly soft, and its starch thickens the broth enough to coat the spoon. If you skip it, mash about a quarter of the beans against the side of the pot to get the body back, and add a little more olive oil at the end.

What can I use for tubettini in a cold pasta salad?

Small elbow macaroni, sometimes sold as salad macaroni, is the standard and it is the same idea. Ditalini works, and small shells work well because dressing collects inside them. Avoid orzo and acini de pepe for a make-ahead salad, since solid tiny shapes keep absorbing dressing in the fridge and the salad goes dry and pasty by the second day.

How much dry pasta should I add to a pot of soup?

For small shapes in a brothy soup, about two ounces of dry pasta per quart of liquid is a good starting point, which is roughly a third of a cup. That sounds like very little, but the pasta triples in size and drinks broth as it sits. If you want a thicker, spoon-standing pasta e fagioli, go up to three ounces per quart and expect to add stock when you reheat it.

Do I need to rinse small pasta before adding it to soup?

Never for a hot soup. The surface starch is what thickens the broth and helps it cling. Rinse only if the pasta is going into a cold salad, where you want the pieces separate and cool rather than gluing together as they sit.

Related substitutes

More pasta & noodles substitutes

Tubettini substitute

Other tubettini substitutes

2Small Elbow Macaroni

3Acini de Pepe or Pastina

4Orzo

5Broken Spaghetti or Broken Linguine

6Small Shells or Mini Farfalle