Take a Look at the Future of Pasta

Farfalle, macaroni, spaghetti. We all recognise our favourite pasta shapes when we're perusing the supermarket shelves, but all that might just get blown out of the water with a brand new science-led innovation in the world of pasta.

A research team led by the Morphing Matter Lab at Carnegie Mellon University has spent years developing flat pasta that forms into familiar shapes when cooked, in a win-win sustainability and taste solution.

In the research paper, Morphing Pasta and Beyond, which featured as a cover story in the May issue of Science Advances, researchers say the flat-to-fat pasta saves on packaging, transport space and cooking time.

"We were inspired by flat-packed furniture and how it saved space, made storage easier and reduced the carbon footprint associated with transportation," said Lining Yao, director of the Morphing Matter Lab in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at CMU's School of Computer Science. Interestingly, for traditional macaroni, "more than 60% of the packaging space is used to pack air".

Watch the magic pasta in action:

Pasta al Dente?

Not only does the flat pasta save on space, but it also cooks quicker than authentic Italian pasta, with optimum results found after roughly seven minutes of cooking.

Less cooking time means less greenhouse gas emissions. "For example, in Italy, 0.7% to 1% of greenhouse gas emissions is due to cooking pasta, and these emissions could be reduced by half if the shape and cooking processes could be optimized," the team's website explains.

_{Photo: Courtesy of Morphing Matter Lab, CMU}

How is Flat-Pack Pasta Made?

The team use a traditional pasta recipe of semolina flour and water, then stamp strategic grooves into flat pasta dough, which form patterns that react with hot cooking water. The grooved surfaces expand less than the smooth ones, in turn creating shapes like tubes, spirals, boxes and waves.

_{Photo: Courtesy of Morphing Matter Lab, CMU}

Flat-Pack Pasta of the Future

The team has big ideas for the space-saving pasta, from its possibility as a food solution for astronauts serving at space stations, to maximising food deliveries to disaster sites or simply feeding hungry hikers.

The New York Times reports that the scientists have put the pasta to the taste test, on both a hiking trip and a dinner party, with successful results on both occasions.

All that remains to be seen is whether Italians give this culinary innovation the stamp of approval.