I’ll be honest: at least part of the reason I’m writing this is in the hopes of getting some reprieve from the nonstop barrage of emails, social media DMs, texts, phone calls, and, at least in two cases, personal visits to my home, all demanding that we undertake more noodle and pasta coverage here at the Autopian. “But this is a car website,” I’ll reply, only to be answered with a vulgar, poorly-lit photo of a middle finger or perhaps some genitals and the repeated demand to provide more pasta-related content. So, all of you demanding noodle-heads, here you go: prime pasta content.
The pasta in question here is called Marille, and it was an actual project of the legendary designer Giorgetto Giugiaro of ItalDesign, the design house behind the original Volkswagen Golf and Scirocco, the DeLorean DMC-12, the Fiat Panda, the Saab 9000, among other cars.
I learned about the pasta project when I was writing about how Giugiaro had the first five-door VW Golf GTI made special for him by Volkswagen, complete with big US-spec bumpers.
The pasta project seems to have come about in 1983 when Voiello, which I guess is the more daring sub-brand of Barilla, issued what I assume was a sort of RFP for a new pasta shape. The pasta they wanted came with a good set of requirements: it shouldn’t absorb too much sauce, it should increase in volume in water, it should weigh about half as much as an equivalent plate of spaghetti, it should be good at capturing and retaining sauce, and it must be visually interesting. That’s a lot to ask of a pasta.
Oh, and it seems it must fit in with the Neapolitan pasta tradition which dictates that the outer surface of the pasta remain smooth.
Giugiaro took all of these requirements and applied his fearsome designer’s mind to the problem, and came up with something that resembles the rubber gasket used as weatherstripping on the edges of car doors. Seriously, that’s what it says right there on the ItalDesign site, and if you look at the pasta and some car door gasket you can definitely see the resemblance:
There are other ways of describing the pasta that may be more appealing than comparing it to some chewy but inedible rubber from a car. The cross-section of the pasta is said to resemble the Greek letter beta and was designed to be easily extruded through a drawplate, like you see here:
The pasta has ridges on the inside of the loops to retain sauce and bits of meat and other good stuff, but is slick on the outer surface for, I assume, aerodynamic reasons.
Despite the careful design and star power afforded to the Marille pasta, the whole project was something of a failure. Marille didn’t revolutionize the pasta world, and it was found to require unusually long cooking times, and even then it tended to cook unevenly. It also wasn’t distributed or marketed particularly well, despite getting a lot of press at the time.
In fact, when asked about his pasta and its disappointing performance, Giugiaro managed to find the bright side of the noodle, saying
“…but I owe my popular fame to the Marille; It even got me published in Newsweek”.
…so, I guess if that makes Giugiaro happy, then I’m happy. Here’s the Newsweek article he mentioned:
You’d think a guy like GG would have been jaded to the notion of seeing his name in print, but perhaps I’m underestimating the power of Newsweek!
The Marille pasta is no longer being produced, but perhaps some enterprising pasta-makers can reverse-engineer the design and enjoy a big steamy bowl of the noodle that the man who penned the Lotus Esprit designed.
I really appreciate it when Torch gives us a glimpse into his private life.
“Amusing in the mouth”
Yep, definitely 60’s.
Crap I meant 80’s
I also laughed at that,wonder if it was intentional.
If Giugiaro really wanted to make a good pasta he should have looked at Ford Cortina taillights. I’d love a plate of Cortinalini avec de Tomasos.
How are the round sections of the drawplate kept in place? Do they just hover? I guess I need to get Torch’s pasta engineering newsletter.
At the back of the die the centres of the holes are held in place by some spruces. Those have enough clearing of the front of the die so the dough it can reflow so that you get one continues tube of pasta flowing out.
wikipedia has a good picture of the front and back of a macaroni die https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_extrusion (half way on the page)
I was hoping that was it. Thanks!
Finally, a picture of my genitals pays off.
I hope “My genitals were designed by Giugiaro” is front and centre on your dating profile.
I most enjoy the picture of Giugiaro looking as appropriately serious about pasta as you’d expect from an Italian designer.
Am I the only one who thinks that ‘Amusing in the Mouth’ should be on the front page in about the same size of font used for Kennedy?
Why yes, I do hear Beavis and Butt-Head laughing in the background, why do you ask?
Hell, I think it belongs on the box, preferably in a star callout.
The following are the most important criteria for the ideal pasta.
“Forkability” – how easy it is to get a pasta shape on your fork and keep it there
“Sauceability” – how well a sauce sticks to it
“Toothsinkability” – how satisfying it is to bite into.
Anyone who’s tried it knows Cascatelli is near perfect in all three of these categories, making it man’s best pasta design to date.
I liked the series, but I found the pasta greatly over-rated. The little ribs fall off; no matter if you cook it al-dente or well done. It’s far less forkable than something like wheels, and it holds less sauce than (my favorite) rigatoni.
Plus, it’s expensive as shit–which makes sense, since it was originally small batches. But even the Trader Joe’s version is pricey.
I bought it when it was initially released, and I’ve bought it several times since. Mostly because it’s a kind of cool story behind it and it’s probably Dan’s best series on his Podcast.
And let’s be real here, the shape is not near as original as he makes it out to be. Yes, he went into great depths how he researched other pasta shapes, but ultimately his is basically a cross between lanterne (or radiatori) and creste di galli.
Rigatoni freaking rocks.
I love spaghetti rigati – scores excellently on #2 #3, while also being acceptable to the kids.
That’s the same criteria I used for a girlfriend.
Yeah, I’m a biter…
Sauceability is the weird one in that case.
Philippe Starck also designed a pasta, which seems kind of up his alley, if I’m being honest.
Manicotti ! This is fusilli, quit ditalini your manicotti orzo penne rotelle gnocchi !
Walter da Silva also designed a pasta, the Papiri, after he left VW. Maybe it’s the secret dream of every Italian designer to design their own trademark pasta..?
That’s a piece of trivia I’ve known for years because Car & Driver had a David E. Davis column that included a taste test.
That’s a great story. We need more bold car pasta! Pirelli (tire shaped)! Handelini (door-handle shaped)! Valetti (glove compartment shaped)!
Everyone knows spiral shaped pasta is best. End of story.
Thanks for the JFK photo here.
Especially today.
Let us all pause a minute to remember the date.
And those we lost. Then, and as time passes. Let us hope lessons have been learned.
So it took poorly lit photos of genital shaped pasta to get the message through, finally.
It doesn’t cook evenly, but how does it do in a shower?
Damn, I’m learning this too late. I arrabiata the pasta I need for a while.
I’ll be honest, I thought this article was going to be about radiatori, the inventively named, radiator-shaped pasta.
But is that pasta as good as radiatori? Now that’s the stuff. Make your Mac n Cheese with radiatori and it’ll change your life.