Mostaccioli
moh-stah-CHOH-lee
Smooth diagonal-cut tube, the American penne lisce.
10 mm across, 1.1 mm wall
Name. From mostaccioli, a southern Italian spiced biscuit of similar diamond shape. The pasta name is American.
What it is
Mostaccioli is what American brands and Italian-American kitchens call a smooth diagonal-cut tube: penne lisce under another name. It is the pasta of baked mostaccioli, a Midwestern church-supper dish of tubes, meat sauce, and mozzarella.
Some brands also sell mostaccioli rigati, which is penne rigate.
How to cook mostaccioli
10 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 10 minutes, fully cooked at 12.
10:00
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 mostaccioli. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
- Bite a piece at 9 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
As penne lisce: tomato, meat sauce, and the oven. The smooth surface suits baked dishes where the cheese binds.
Pairs with: Baked (al forno) · Meat ragu · Pomodoro · Vodka sauce
Classic plates: Baked mostaccioli, Mostaccioli with meat sauce.
By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets
1 brand, 1 product page.
| Brand | Product | Cook |
|---|---|---|
| Barilla | Mostaccioli | 11 min, al dente 10 |
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 mostaccioli
30 mostaccioli products are catalogued, most of them sold in United States.
Brands: Nwpc (4), Spartan (3), Creamette (2), Prince (2), New World Pasta (2), Mueller's (1), Barilla (1), Springfield (1), Unified Grocers Inc (1), San Giorgio (1).
No mostaccioli? Use these
Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.
Side by side
Easy to confuse with
Other names
mostaccioli rigati, penne lisce.
Sources
- Mostaccioli, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
- Cook time: typical dried, brand pages.
- 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.
- Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.