Does the perfect pasta shape exist? It does now, thanks to The Sporkful's creator and host Dan Pashman. Dan and Kristen talk about Dan's 3-year quest to develop cascatelli: the most forkable, sauceable, and tooth-sinkable pasta shape—and, the accompanying 5-part podcast series, "Mission ImPASTAble."

Referenced in this episode:

• Cascatelli by The Sporkful
• Dan's mom's Primavera Pasta with Cascatelli, adapted from Melissa Clark

Genius-Hunter Extra-Credit:

• Listen to Dan's quest to create the shape in The Sporkful series: Mission ImPASTAble
• Oh yes—the shape now has its own Wikipedia page

Special thanks to listeners Janet (@janetmccracken) and Anna (@billyskog) for sharing your very strong pasta feelings.

Got a genius lead you'd like to share? Email it to me at genius@food52.com; I want to hear all about it!