Just be careful when you’re adding it to the broth to be cooked. We all remember getting to eat “alphabet soup” as kids, or pigging out on stars and pasta sauce, and that’s the kind of fun and whimsy that this pasta is going to bring to every bowl of soup that you add it to. Stelline is a big favorite with little kids, if for no other reason than the fact that it has a star shape when it is finished cooking and just seems to add a little bit of fun to a bowl of soup. Throw some ditalini in a soup like minestrone and you can’t go wrong! Stelline

Small, but not too small, this is a perfect replacement for elbows, for macaroni, and work exceptionally well in a soup filled to the brim with broth. (Pictured above.)ĭitalini looks like elbows that have been straightened out and then sliced in half, and the name directly translates to “tiny thimbles”. On the opposite side of the size spectrum from rotelle sits achini de pepe, which literally translates into “grains of pepper” – which should give you a great idea as to how small this pasta starts out (and how small it ends up after cooking)!Ī lot like Israeli couscous, this pasta is even smaller than most grains of rice and goes really well with a dish like Italian Wedding soup. You probably remember making pasta necklaces with rotelle in the past, and while it’s a little bit on the larger side of things it remains a small pasta shape that works well in a lot of different soups (especially the rustic style ones)! Achini di Pepe Rotelle pasta looks a lot like a mini wagon wheel, and it’s fantastic for soups that are veggie heavy but are lacking a little something. In an effort to help out (and to get you trying new pasta types when you’re making soup), here are eight of our favorite small pastas perfect for you! Rotelle

With so many different types of pasta to pick and choose from, finding the right pasta is always a little bit tougher than most people think it’s going to be right out of the gate! There are all kinds of soups out there that really lend themselves well to having pasta added, but you want to make sure you’re not only adding the right amount of pasta – too much and you run the risk of the pasta soaking all the broth – but that you’re adding the right kind of pasta to the dish as well.

Tiny balls of pasta