I want to make a Greek dish that calls for pasticio pasta; went shopping at local grocery store and found a bazillion kinds of pasta except pasticio, which is a tubular pasta. Can I substitute some other type of pasta, such as ziti without affecting the taste, texture, etc.? I don’t want to have to check out every grocery store in the area, and I can’t find any speciality food shops nearby.
You’ll probably be fine, as long as you’re not substituting egg noodles.
I would stick as closely to the original as possible (e.g. I’ve seen pasticcio with ground meat done with macaroni). Most pasta dishes base noodle type on the heaviness of the sauce.
Another tubular pasta should be just fine, but ziti might be too big, and it’s likely to squish in baking. Pasticio (the dish, as opposed to the pasta) is a casserole of sorts, and you want to retain the lightness and airspace that the tubes provide. Bucatini would be best, but it’s probably just as hard to find. I usually see Pasticio (the dish) in the US made with elbow macaroni, though.
Thanks everyone. I’m not much of a cook (I praise God everyday for the microwave), but I attended a local Greek festival recently, and just LOVED the pasticio. I haven’t had much luck in trying to duplicate others’ recipes, but I want to give this one a try. Thanks again.
My Greek mother-in-law always used to make pastitsio with broken spaghetti. So I either do that, or use elbow macaroni.
I think the pasta you’re referring to in the OP is ditalini. I’ve never heard the word “pastitsio” used for anything but the finished casserole.
PS: “Pastitsio” is spelled pastitsio.
If the sauce for the dish is fairly substantial (thick and chunky), and you’re not certain the ziti in your store is big enough, you could try the largest shell pasta you can find: the shape will grab the heaviest sauce and stand up both to long cooking and reheating.
I’m not much of a cook; as I said, the microwave is my friend. But the pasticio at the Greek festival was SO good, I had to try it. (I’ve noticed there are different spellings for this dish.) Just wanted to know if the shape/size of the pasta made a diffrerence. If mine comes out as good as what I had at the Greek festival, I’ll be happy. Thanks again for your input.