In terms of soups, yes there are lots of small pasta shapes you can use instead of rice.
The 'family' name of this type of pasta is 'ditali', which basically refers to really tiny pasta shapes (literally, the word ditali comes from 'dita', which means fingers in Italian. So ditali are things that can fit around a finger).
See the pasta shapes on this lentil pasta soup page for example. You should be able to find such tiny pasta at your local store.
As for risotto, pasta doesn't really apply I'm afraid, as the name risotto specifies that a dish is specifically made with rice (as 'riso' means rice).
