Edicola No. 4
Ciao friends,
This month, we launched Cubetti, our newest pasta shape and our very first designed to be eaten by the heaping spoonful. Then, because a new pasta shape deserves a proper introduction, we spent eight straight days sharing pasta salad recipes with it.
If you've never heard of Cubetti before, you're not alone. It's small, square, hollow, ridged, and surprisingly architectural. Think of it as a squared ditalini, with six faces and plenty of corners for dressing, herbs, cheese, and all the good bits at the bottom of the bowl to get caught up in.
It's a shape that's rare even in Italy and incredibly hard to find in the U.S. (we think we may be the first to do it here). We developed it with our pasta production partners in Molise, Italy, pushing what was possible with traditional bronze extrusion to create something that feels both distinctly Italian and completely new.
We hope you love Cubetti just as much as we do.
WHAT'S ON OUR TABLE
Our smallest (and dare we say, cutest) shape yet taught us a few things this month.
First: spoonable pasta is deeply underrated and highly functional.
There is something so very satisfying about getting pasta, dressing, cheese, vegetables, and whatever else you have piled into the bowl all in one perfect bite. No chasing peas around the plate, no bit of tomato left behind. Cubetti keeps everything together, which is really all we ask of pasta and, occasionally, of life.
Second: pasta salad is the food of the summer, and has absolutely zero rules.
We think of pasta fredda dishes as a format, and a very generous one, at that.
It can be creamy or bright, a vehicle for familiar flavors or totally unexpected, built for a backyard cookout or eaten directly from the fridge by the heap-ful. It can lean Italian deli, charred lemon and basil, pickles, seafood, sun-dried tomato pesto, or absolutely wherever else your refrigerator takes you. Chilled pasta dishes truly have bounds.
To celebrate the launch, we handed Cubetti over to some of our favorite chefs, creators, and food brands and asked them to show us what pasta salad could be.
Jeri Mobley of Whisper of Yum kicked things off with charred lemon, grilled corn, crispy prosciutto, and a creamy basil-feta dressing. Sara Tane and Shakayla Felice brought their own summer points of view. Fishwife.
Freestyle Snacks, Smash Kitchen, and California Olive Ranch took Cubetti into entirely different corners of the pantry.
Freestyle turned it into the pickle pasta salad of our '90s dreams, complete with cheddar and a creamy pickle-brine dressing. California Olive Ranch paired it with a glossy sun-dried tomato pesto, arugula, Parmesan, and toasted pine nuts.
Different recipes, totally different flavors, but all using the same small but mighty shape that holds on to every last bit. We could tell you that Cubettis ridges and hollow center make it especially good at capturing ingredients, but we decided to show you instead.
Third: some of the best things in life require little effort, but plenty of patience.
Pasta salad is one of those foods that just gets better as it sits. After throwing ingredients together, the dressing settles into the ridges, vegetables release a little flavor, and everything just gets better acquainted in the refrigerator.
It is food that rewards making it before your friends arrive, which means less time fussing in the kitchen and more time actually being part of the gathering.
A very Italian outcome, even if the pasta salad itself is wonderfully American.
WHAT WE'RE LISTENING TO
A new pasta shape naturally called for a new playlist.
This month's Cubetti soundtrack was curated by our founder, Aaron, with the same energy as the shape itself: playful, lively, and made for moving around the kitchen.
It is best played while chopping more herbs than the recipe may call for, carrying a very large bowl of pasta salad somewhere sunny, or on a picnic blanket with friends.
There is a particular kind of music that makes cooking feel less like getting dinner done and more like the beginning of the evening, and this is just that.
WHAT WE'RE COOKING
Because seven days of pasta salad were not quite enough, we are bringing you one more before the long holiday weekend.
Our Italian Sub Pasta Salad is everything we love about a very good deli sandwich, rearranged for a bowl.
Cubetti gets tossed with salami, provolone, green olives. tomatoes, pepperoncini, red onion, and chives, then coated in a creamy red wine vinegar dressing with Dijon, garlic, honey, and italian seasoning.
It is salty, tangy, creamy, a little crunchy, and full of the tiny pieces you want in every bite. In other words, exactly the kind of thing Cubetti was made for.
Make it before the cookout, then let it hang out in the fridge. Oh, and don't forget to bring the biggest serving spoon you own.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
We will be back next month with another Edicola.
Until then, here is your reminder that tradition does not have to stand still to remain meaningful.
One of our favorite things about pasta is that there is always room for another shape, another sauce, and another way to bring people around the table. Cubetti may be new, but the idea behind it is very old: make something with care, then share it generously.
