You’ve probably slurped strands of spaghetti, bitten into stuffed rectangles of ravioli, and twirled flat ribbons of fettuccine. These are just a few of the estimated 350 different pasta shapes. While all are delicious, Dan Pashman felt that no one noodle was perfect.
Pashman hosts a food podcast called The Sporkful. In 2018, he was thinking about how pasta shapes affect how you enjoy different dishes. Some pastas excel at holding sauces, while others are easy to scoop up with a fork. “I felt like pasta shapes were one-note songs,” says Pashman. “They do one thing well.” But he wanted a pasta that could do it all, so he decided to make a new shape.
After three years of testing, Pashman devised a shape that combined his favorite pasta properties: tube shapes and ruffles. He named it cascatelli—a play on the Italian word for “waterfall.” Pashman partnered with the small pasta maker Sfoglini to produce his pasta. All 3,700 boxes of the first batch sold out in two hours! Pashman didn’t set out to create a food fad, though. “I wanted to make something that was actually good to eat,” he says.