Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed flat-packed pasta that also changes to rose shape as it cooks.
The idea of flat packaging was taken from the flat-packed furniture and has totally changed the perception for developing and packing pasta. The newfound pasta fulfills the pasta lovers’ cravings and changes to shapes as it boils, the real thing but with an easy packing. Researchers behind the shape-changing pasta believe that it would save in cost, transportation, and energy, all while giving an experience and taste of traditional mouth-watering pasta.
Pasta as we all know comes in different shapes and sizes and even though they swell upon boiling, they do not change that shape. Varying from yummy lasagnas to mouth-watering elbow macaroni’s, all shapes are beyond love-able. The newfound pasta, in contrast, comes in flat pieces, containing carved-out tiny grooves in the flat pasta dough, that when boiled, changes to different shapes.
These carved-out tiny patterns in the pasta dough determine what shape it takes as it swells upon boiling. Researchers showed that the new flat pasta turns into rigatoni-like tubes, fusilli-like spirals, and long twirling noodles, allowing for keeping the pasta fun with the convenience of simple packaging.
“The groove side expands less than the smooth side, leading the pasta to morph into shape,” says Teng Zhang, a scientist at Syracuse University who partnered on the research.
One of the researchers behind the flat-packed pasta took it for a test run on a hiking trip and found that it didn’t break while she was on her way to the camping site. Upon boiling, the flat-pasta changed shape and tasted just like traditional pasta’s, one word “mouth-watering.” Learn about it more as it boils in the video below.
