From spiral swirls to long spaghetti strands, there are about 350 different shapes of pasta. All have their uses in different recipes. But does one noodle stand above the rest?
That was a question asked by Dan Pashman. He hosts a food podcast called The Sporkful. In 2018, he began thinking about how noodle shapes affect the way people enjoy different pasta dishes. Some pastas hold sauces well. Others are satisfying to bite into or easy to eat with a fork. “Most pastas do one of these things well,” says Pashman.
But could one pasta do all of these things? To find out, Pashman began a search he called “Mission: ImPASTAble.”