Acini di pepe
AH-chee-nee dee PEH-peh
Tiny beads the size of peppercorns.
Name. Peppercorns.
What it is
Acini di pepe are the smallest common pastina: beads about two millimetres across, the size of a peppercorn. They are the soup pasta of Italian wedding soup and of Italian-American childhood.
In the United States they are also the base of frog eye salad, a sweet fruit salad from the Mountain West.
How to cook acini di pepe
6 to 9 minutes in boiling salted water. Take the shorter time for al dente, the longer time for fully cooked.
6:00
Start when the water returns to the boil.
Water and salt
- Pasta, dry
- 400 g
- Water
- 4 L
- Salt
- 40 g
100 g per person as a main. A litre and 10 g of salt per 100 g. Adjust with the portion calculator.
The steps
- Bring 4 L of water to a full boil in a tall pot. Add 40 g of salt when it boils.
- Add the acini di pepe. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Or cook it in the broth it will be served in, and do not drain it.
- Bite a piece at 5 minutes. A hairline of white at the centre is al dente.
- Scoop out a cup of the cooking water. Drain, or lift the pasta straight into the pan.
- Toss with the sauce over the heat for a minute. Add cooking water a splash at a time until it clings.
Read more: what al dente means and why the pasta water matters. Times for every shape are on the cook page.
How it holds sauce
Cooked in the broth it is served in. Clear soups, wedding soup, a chicken broth with egg. Too small for any sauce.
Pairs with: In brodo · Minestrone · Pasta e ceci
Classic plates: Italian wedding soup, Pastina in brodo, Frog eye salad.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
1 brand, 1 product page.
| Brand | Product | No. | Cook |
|---|---|---|---|
| De Cecco | Acini di Pepe no. 78 | 78 | 9 min |
Nutrition
Per 100 g of dry semolina pasta. The shape does not change these numbers. The dough does, so a whole wheat or egg version of this shape reads differently. See every dough.
| Per 100 g | Energy | Protein | Carbohydrate | Fibre | Fat | Sodium | Iron |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry | 371 kcal | 13.0 g | 74.7 g | 3.2 g | 1.5 g | 6 mg | 3.3 mg |
| Cooked | 158 kcal | 5.8 g | 30.9 g | 1.8 g | 0.9 g | 1 mg | 1.3 mg |
One portion. 100 g dry becomes about 235 g cooked, 371 kcal and 13 g of protein. Pasta takes on 2.3 times its weight in the pot.
Who makes acini di pepe
18 acini di pepe products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States, Canada. Of those, 1 are made in Italy.
Brands: New World Pasta (4), Giant Eagle (2), Ronzoni (1), Prince (1), San Giorgio (1), Ip Italpasta (1), Creamette (1), De Cecco (1), F Lli de Cecco di Filippo Fara San Martino Spa (1), Delverde (1).
No acini di pepe? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Pastina
Pastina · All of Italy
any tiny pasta for broth; the smallest grade of all
Stelline
Pastina · All of Italy
tiny five- or six-pointed stars with a hole in the centre
Orzo
Pastina · All of Italy
grain-shaped pasta the size of a large rice grain
Fregola
Pastina · Sardinia
irregular toasted semolina pearls, like a coarse couscous
Other names
acini de pepe, pepe bucato, peppercorn pasta.
Sources
- Acini di Pepe no. 78, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: De Cecco no. 78: 9 min.
- Photograph: AciniDiPepe3.jpg, Nyh at English Wikipedia, Public domain.
- Open Food Facts (products, brands, labels), Open Database License, read on 2026-08-25.
- USDA FoodData Central (nutrition per 100 g, by dough: FDC 169736, Pasta, dry, enriched; FDC 169737, Pasta, cooked, enriched, without added salt), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
- Acini di pepe, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
- Q869722, Wikidata
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.