The Sporkful’s Dan Pashman and Sfoglini Release Two New Pasta Shapes
From the creators of last year’s viral cascatelli come quattrotini and vesuvio.
Photo courtesy of Sfoglini
We seem to be living through a remarkable moment in pasta history. Just as a beloved pasta shape from one brand has moved on to that pasta pot in the great beyond (R.I.P., Ronzoni Pastina), two new shapes from another brand are headed our way. Welcome to our midst, quattrotini and vesuvio.
The team behind last year’s viral new pasta shape cascatelli, The Sporkful podcast creator and host Dan Pashman and American pasta maker Sfoglini, have again partnered, this time to bring to the American market two under-the-radar pasta shapes.
Quattrotini and vesuvio will be available alongside cascatelli for nationwide shipping as Sfoglini’s The Sporkful Collection on sfoglini.com starting on January 24.
The new pasta shapes will join cascatelli – which sparked a sensation, with months-long waitlists, when it was introduced last spring – to “bring much-needed excitement and innovation to the American pasta landscape,” the brands promise in a press release.
“Like cascatelli, quattrotini and vesuvio stand out from the well-worn shapes seen in most stores across the country, and push people to think more creatively about what elements truly make the best pasta-eating experience,” the collaborators say.
While cascatelli was developed over three years to create a pasta shape that evoked Pashman’s ideal combination of “forkability” (ease of getting and keeping it on a fork), “sauceability” (its ability to hold sauce) and “toothsinkability” (how toothsome it is), the new shapes reflect his desire to introduce to America little-known shapes from Italy he considers under appreciated. Sfoglini, too, is also dedicated to bringing less-familiar shapes to America, and so together they have seen fit to introduce the two new pastas as part of The Sporkful Collection.
Quattrotini is Pashman and Sfoglini’s twist on cinque buchi, an unusual pasta shape served annually during carnival celebrations in a particular area of Sicily. While traditionally the pasta shape is four narrow tubes connected alongside each corner of a long rectangle, the new quattrotini version enhances the tubes with ridges, to maximize the shape’s “sauceability.”
Vesuvio, meanwhile, is named for Mount Vesuvius; the shape can be found in the towns around the active volcano. The pasta also resembles a volcano. Starting from a broad round base, it spirals more and more tightly, culminating in a thin, pointy tip. This shape allows “sauce to sink into the spirals,” the brands note.
Pashman shares more about the creation of the shapes on The Sporkful podcast series, “Mission: ImPASTAble,” which released on January 23.
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