Awesome Pasta

Jan Hakon Erichsen does just the kind of ridiculous stuff that we’d do if we were performance artists. He spends much of his time popping balloons in creative ways, but this reel reveals his appetite for destruction of pasta. We hope he cooked some of those noodles after he cracked them.

One of the best guilty pleasures to make its way onto dinner tables is macaroni and cheese. From homemade casseroles to the dorm room staple of Kraft mac and cheese, there’s a place in our bellies for all of them. Weird History Food explores the origins of the dish and how it became an all-American comfort food.

We know that pasta isn’t good for you, but we can’t resist the occasional bowl of carbs drowned in tomatoes, meat, and cheese. Wondastic Tech put together this satisfying compilation of factories that produce pasta, showing off the different machines used to form shapes like tortellini, fusilli, lasagna, and cannelloni.

There are lots of pasta shapes out there, but some take up more shelf space than others. Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University came up with an innovative method to make pasta that starts out flat but takes a 3D form when cooked. The process involves scoring pasta dough with varying depths and spacing.

Designed by Lior Rokah Kor of housewares brand OTOTO, this festive yellow colander turns your fresh-cooked spaghetti into a flying spaghetti monster – like the one worshipped by Pastafarians. They also make a set of pasta monster servers which you can use in your own bowls. Made from dishwasher-safe BPA-free plastic.

Mom and dad always told you not to play with your food. But we think they’d make an exception for these connectors that let you build structures using dry spaghetti. They come in 3-sided and 4-sided versions, in packages of 100 connectors each. Just don’t boil your noodles if you care about structural integrity.

There’s nothing quite like a beautiful plate of fresh, handmade pasta. Tasty takes us inside the Bronx’s famous Borgatti’s Ravioli & Egg Noodles and the kitchens at Altamarea Group for an up close look at the master craft of creating noodles from scratch.

Cooking expert Linda Nicholson aka “Salty Seattle” shows us how she makes some of her colorful rainbow-striped pasta without using any artificial ingredients. She uses flowers, vegetables, and spices to add the color to her pasta ribbons.

An extensive look inside the Roma Prince pasta factory in Costa Rica where a factory line engineered by GEA Group continuously cranks out a stream of delicious noodle ribbons, ready for us to add pasta sauce, cheese, and meat to. Anyone else craving Italian for dinner?

Weapon maker Joerg Sprave shows us how bundles of spaghetti noodles can be used to make deadly weapons. Though the knife blades and nails are a bit of a cheat. Kill a guy with a single wet noodle and we’ll be truly impressed.