A complex pasta dish is only as good as the sauce it's drenched in, and podcaster Dan Pashman knows this to be true. The award-winning podcast host wasn't satisfied with the pasta shapes already available on the market so he took it upon himself to create something better and after three years, Cascatelli pasta was born.
In his work as a host for the food podcast The Sporkful, Dan started his journey to find or create the best pasta shapes out there. To be classified as such, Dan considered three different metrics: saucability, forkability, and toothsinkability. These themes helped him define how much sauce could easily adhere to the pasta shape, how easy it is to get the pasta on one's fork, and how satisfying it is the sink your teeth into your bite.
Cascatelli, which is named that based on the Italian word for waterfalls, has all three of those criteria in check. the pasta shape is longer than most pastas which makes it easy to stab with your fork, the half tube and ruffled edge make a sort of trough for sauce to pool into, and there are right angles and different sizes of ruffles in every piece that makes every bite have various textures. Because of this brand new texture and shape, Cascatelli should be cooked for 13 to 17 minutes depending on your preference.
Upon its release, the first batch of Cascatelli sold out quickly so as of right now, when you order it will take 12 weeks to ship out to you. To learn more about how exactly Dan came up with the shape from his first idea to actual production, listen to Sporkful's “Mission: ImPASTAble” wherever you get your podcasts.
