Sporkful's Cascatelli

[Vapre]

https://www.sfoglini.com/products/sporkful

3 years to develop. Podcast series 'Mission Impastable' goes into the process (https://www.sporkful.com/tag/mission-impastable/). Did anyone else order this? Have you received it yet? Does it live up to the hype?

[FlashJack]

Dan Pashman has been flogging this on every medium ever invented. Thanks for the link though, I'd not seen it before. It looks interesting. I'm glad to see some sauce-catching frills. It has taken a leaf from one of my favourite pasta shapes: radiatori. That has so many frills it's like a pasta version of tripe. Great texture, although it can be a bit massive. If you like tripe in red sauce give it a try.

[Shelby]

Quite the waitlist.

[gfweb]

That pasta looks like a mini lasagna noodle.

Batali would object to the premise, saying that pasta is the star and that the sauce is merely a condiment and too much of it is no good.

[Toliver]

Posted here:

"Man creates new pasta shape made to hold sauce"

 

Not a big fan of the "How much are you willing to pay to try this?" sales pitch on that web site.

I'll wait until it sells on Walmart or Amazon at a decent price.

[gfweb]

When I googled cascatelli I got flood of celebrity websites that are promoting it in one way or another. 

 

Good old-fashioned logrolling

[Vapre]

The only option avail. when I ordered was the 5# bag. I’ll let you know how it is when I get it, hope it’s good b/c I’ll have a lot.

[DesertTinker]

1 hour ago, Vapre said:

The only option avail. when I ordered was the 5# bag. I’ll let you know how it is when I get it, hope it’s good b/c I’ll have a lot.

Thanks for “taking one for the team”. Five pounds is a lot for an unknown.

[btbyrd]

I ordered some like three days after it went on sale. But it's still probably 6-7 weeks out. Will report back once I've had the chance. But if your only exposure to this pasta is from the celebrity blogosphere, I highly recommend listening to Dan Pashman's podcast (The Sporkful) about the development process that went into making this pasta. It's quite the journey.

 

Here's a link to the first episode of the 5-part series.

Edited April 14, 2021 by btbyrd
Link/spelling (log)

[blue_dolphin]

12 hours ago, btbyrd said:

I ordered some like three days after it went on sale. But it's still probably 6-7 weeks out. Will report back once I've had the chance. But if your only exposure to this pasta is from the celebrity blogosphere, I highly recommend listening to Dan Pashman's podcast (The Sporkfull) about the development process that went into making this pasta. It's quite the journey.

I agree on the podcast recommendation.  I thought I'd heard it all because he's been all over the place but hearing the whole story was interesting. 

 

19 hours ago, Toliver said:

Not a big fan of the "How much are you willing to pay to try this?" sales pitch on that web site.

I'll wait until it sells on Walmart or Amazon at a decent price.

Pricing was one of the things they went into.  None of the big companies were interested in taking on the project without a commitment to enormous batch sizes so he partnered with a smaller, artisan-type pasta maker.  They ended up pricing the cascatelli at $4.99/lb, lower than any of that company's other offerings at $5.99-7.99/lb.  I'd guess most buyers are already at least occasional purchasers of Italian or other artisan pasta in those price ranges or are willing to fork out the premium over something like De Cecco.  It could turn up on Amazon (doesn't everything?🙃 ) but I doubt it will be battling Ronzoni for low price leader at Walmart.  

 

I was going to wait until the hubbub died down but a couple weeks ago I decided to go ahead and order.  Still got a couple of months to wait.  

 

 

 

[Vapre]

I got mine a little while ago and tried it out a few times, first in lightly seasoned chicken stock and second in a vodka sauce (subbed yogurt for heavy cream since I had it on hand). It is toothsome, forkable, and it holds sauces well. I will be getting more when the 5# option returns.

[blue_dolphin]

The last recipe with fried eggplant & ricotta is available here though I'm intrigued by the ricotta and 'nduja version she made earlier and may have to try that one first. 

[btbyrd]

I like this shape a lot and hope they're able to scale up production so there's not a perpetual three month wait for it. It's something special -- even more tooth-sinkable than rigatoni and it holds sauce like nobody's business.

 

Here's some with pistachio pesto:

 

 

And a closeup to show the sauce holding abilities a bit more. I just kept throwing more and more pesto at it, and it kept drinking it in.

 

 

And with a spicy red pepper, sausage, and cream sauce.

 

Good stuff.

[blue_dolphin]

Finally got around to trying that Pasta Grammar recipe with fried eggplant & ricotta, available online here.

Didn't really float my boat.  The cascatelli shape is fine.  The fried eggplant tasted bitter and the whole thing was kind of bland.  Roasting the halved cherry tomatoes for 45 min and tossing them in at the end is a great trick though.  

 

[rotuts]

this shape might work well w a carbonara

 

w lots of carbonara sauce.

 

but @ 5 USD // lbs 

 

plus shipping 

 

Ill stick w other shapes .

[blue_dolphin]

I was listening to Trader Joe's podcast and Cascatelli was one of the pasta shapes they said they'd be selling this fall.  I haven't seen it in the stores yet but I wasn't really looking either. 

[rotuts]

@blue_dolphin 

 

Ooooooooh!

 

see it ?

 

post it here

 

soo soo their biz model didn't work out ?

 

and TJ's swooped in

 

bought a lot up

 

and soon 

 

we might try it 1

[blue_dolphin]

12 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@blue_dolphin 

 

Ooooooooh!

 

see it ?

 

post it here

 

soo soo their biz model didn't work out ?

 

and TJ's swooped in

 

bought a lot up

 

and soon 

 

we might try it 1

 

I dunno about the business model or whether they had one beyond getting the stuff made.  Current waiting time for new orders via the website is down to 2-4 weeks. I heard Pashman at one point, a while back, considering selling it as a store brand.  

[jedovaty]

I splurged and picked up a bunch of boxes as gifts to close friends a couple months ago.  It arrived last week, the noodles look a lot "thicker" than I was expecting.  To be tried in a few weeks when I've got time to make sauce, looks promising!

 

I was really surprised it was shipped from NY.. I thought it was made in CA. 🤷‍♂️

Edited October 7, 2021 by jedovaty (log)

[heidih]

8 minutes ago, jedovaty said:

I splurged and picked up a bunch of boxes as gifts to close friends a couple months ago.  It arrived last week, the noodles look a lot "thicker" than I was expecting.  To be tried in a few weeks when I've got time to make sauce, looks promising!

 

I was really surprised it was shipped from NY.. I thought it was made in CA. 🤷‍♂️

Per website

Sfoglini pasta is made and packaged with a lot of care in New York’s Hudson Valley. It's quality you can taste from the field to the bowl.

[blue_dolphin]

Dan Pashman says Cascatelli is now available at The Fresh Market chain in the eastern US. He said ordering direct from Sfoglini is the better price. He also said the Trader Joe’s stuff won’t be for a few months and will be their own version of the pasta, made in Italy, not the Sfoglini version.

Edited October 9, 2021 by blue_dolphin
extra words (log)

[rotuts]

@blue_dolphin 

 

""   their own version of the pasta, made in Italy, not the Sfoglini version. ''

 

for me , there is the pasta itself , (flavor , texture)

 

then the shape . 

 

I wonder if Cascatelli was able to license their ' work '

 

I hope so !

 

Ill try Tj's , w a light tomato sauce .

[Annie_H]

On 8/25/2021 at 11:07 AM, blue_dolphin said:

Didn't really float my boat.

You certainly made it 'look' amazing. Eggplant can be a bummer at times. I would need to use a bit of tomato paste and a young gorgonzola--skip the eggplant. But that would be something entirely different, lol. 

'nduja. en-DOO-ya. Not familiar with that one. I like her recipes. I purchased a large tin of salted anchovies last winter for her anchovy pasta sauce. I used golden raisins or sometimes unsweetened dried cranberries soaked in bourbon. 

Serious Eats has a good wordy post on 'nduja. HERE

 

Not sure how I feel about the cascatelli shape. Seems a bit bulky. Manly. Like the ruffled edge on cheap lasagna noodles. Thick. Not a shape I would pick from a well stocked brass dye made pasta shelf. 

Curious about the cooking time. On her box in the video she says 13-17 minutes that she said was too long a cooking time. On the website the box now says 15-18 minutes. 

 

I have no issues about the price for a good brass dye made quality pasta. 6 portions in a pound is a buck per serving. I get 8 portions if pasta is a first course. Similar argument with a co-worker that only shops by price. Buys grocery ground beef on sale and can't make a decent burger because they steam. (full of water). Only has burgers out at 15-20 bucks. Good quality butcher grind is 5-8 a pound. Under 2 bucks for an excellent at home burger. 

 

 

[jedovaty]

I gifted almost all boxes, and kept a couple for myself.  Wish I had tried the pasta first, before gifting. 

 

A few basic sauced dishes from one box and I found myself unable to finish each dish!  It was a texture thing, which is weird because I'm all for exploring and enjoying variety, not to mention I've been conditioned to eat everything on my plate even if I don't like the food.  The shape just kept giving me a sense of chewing on gums and teeth, like that bad dream where teeth fall out (I think everyone gets this once in a while, it is so bizarre).  Ugh.

[DesertTinker]

7 minutes ago, jedovaty said:

“a sense of chewing on gums and teeth, like that bad dream where teeth fall out (I think everyone gets this once in a while, it is so bizarre).  Ugh.” No, but thanks for the nightmare fodder!🤣