Perfecting Pasta with Dan Pashman

The "Sporkful" host on his quest to improve one of everyone's favorite foods

Dan Pashman (photo credit: Christopher Appoldt)

In the food world, I think of myself as a “big picture” guy. As you’ve certainly heard me say before: I do not like planning. I adapt!

But if you appreciate a details person, then you are going to love Dan Pashman. Dan is the host of the insanely popular food podcast, The Sporkful, and he takes a rigorous approach to just about everything food related. Things like: How to eat a slice of pizza? How to make the ultimate peanut butter and jelly sandwich? And trust me, Dan has a lot of opinions on what makes a good pasta shape.

Why? Dan spent three years figuring out how to invent what he thinks is the ultimate pasta shape, which he calls “cascatelli.” Apparently Dan isn’t the only one who thought it was great. Time magazine named it one of the best inventions of 2021.

But that wasn’t enough for Dan. (It rarely is.) This month, he has a new book out called Anything's Pastable, which includes 81 recipes for things besides tomato sauce you can put on your noodles. You can pre-order it now. And starting this week Dan also has a five-part podcast series about the making of the book too.

For what it’s worth, March 19th is an important day. Because it’s the exact same day as MY new Zaytinya cookbook (which you can also pre-order now.) AND it’s also the day that my new TV show, Dinner Party Diaries, airs on Amazon Prime Video!!

Dan joined Longer Tables this week with my executive producer Jane Black to talk about wild food obsessions and what just might be the next big thing: Pasta Pizza.

I hope you enjoy the show!