No pasta shape was good enough for Dan Pashman. The obsessive foodie and host of the Sporkful podcast judges pasta shapes on sauceability (how readily sauce adheres), forkability (ease of getting and keeping it on a fork) and toothsinkability (how satisfying it is to sink your teeth into). “Most of the pasta shapes out there are only good at one or two,” he says. So Pashman set out to create his dream pasta shape, an experience chronicled on The Sporkful. Three years and several prototypes later, he finally unveiled Cascatelli, with a half-tube shape to catch sauce and ruffles to provide a dynamic bite, all in a short noodle that’s easily forked. Now manufactured by Sfoglini ($19.96 for 4 lb.), it’s sold nearly 300,000 lb. since debuting in March. —Eliana Dockterman
Buy now: Cascatelli
- Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington
- Meet the 2025 Women of the Year
- The Harsh Truth About Disability Inclusion
- Why Do More Young Adults Have Cancer?
- Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- Cecily Strong on Goober the Clown
- Column: The Rise of America’s Broligarchy
