What to use instead of pasta
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Starch-shedding shape that thickens its own sauce
Semolina sheds amylose into the cooking water, and that starch is what emulsifies fat and cheese into a sauce that clings instead of sliding off.
Bronze-die dried pastaRan out
1:1 by weight
The rough surface sheds noticeably more starch, so the sauce comes together faster and thicker. Cooks a minute or two longer.
Fresh egg pastaRan out
1:1 by weight, 2 to 3 min in the water
Softer bite and richer from the egg. It sheds starch fast, so the water gets cloudy quickly and the sauce thickens sooner.
Gluten-free corn and rice pastaGluten-free
1:1 by weight, in less water than usual, and pull it 90 sec before the packet says
Sheds a great deal of starch, so the water is worth saving and the sauce thickens well. It goes from firm to disintegrating in about a minute.
Whole-wheat pastaRan out
1:1 by weight
Nutty and firmer. The bran clouds the water grey-brown, so a cacio e pepe made with it looks muddy.
What doesn't work: Rice noodles. They are almost pure starch with no gluten holding them, and the water they leach into is gluey rather than silky. A cacio e pepe built on it seizes into a paste on the plate as it cools.
Shape that catches a chunky sauce or sits in a soup
Small tubes and shells trap sauce and beans inside them, so each spoonful carries the same ratio of everything.
Ditalini or other small tubesRan out
1:1 by weight
Nothing changes if you match the size. Anything much bigger and the beans and pasta separate in the bowl.
OrzoRan out
1:1 by weight, cooked in the soup, 9 min
Thickens the broth more than tubes do because there is more surface area. It keeps drinking liquid overnight.
Broken spaghetti or linguineRan out
1:1 by weight, snapped into 1 in pieces
Behaves fine once broken. The pieces are thinner, so they overcook a couple of minutes sooner than tubes.
RiceGluten-free
1:1 by volume, plus 1 cup extra broth and 10 extra min
Thickens the soup considerably more and keeps thickening as it sits. Add broth when you reheat it.
What doesn't work: Long strands left whole in a bean soup. They tangle into a mat at the bottom of the pot, so you either get a spoonful of soup or a fistful of pasta and never both at once.
Neutral bulk carrying a pesto or a butter sauce
It is the volume of the dish and it has to hold sauce on its surface without adding flavour or giving off water.
GnocchiRan out
1 lb gnocchi per 12 oz dried pasta
Softer and much richer, and they carry more sauce per piece. Heavier in the bowl, so serve less.
Egg noodlesRan out
1:1 by weight
Softer and slippery, so pesto slides off more. Richer flavour that suits butter sauces.
Gluten-free pastaGluten-free
1:1 by weight, pulled 90 sec early and rinsed only if serving cold
Carries sauce fine while hot. It stiffens and goes chalky as it cools, so dress and serve it immediately.
What doesn't work: Spiralised zucchini under a sauce built on pasta water. Courgette gives off water rather than absorbing anything, so within two minutes the pesto has thinned, slid to the bottom of the bowl and left the strands bare.