Pasta comes in many shapes like long spaghetti, bendy macaroni or curly fusilli. But what if your pasta could change shapes? That’s the idea behind this pasta that pops into a new shape as it cooks in water. The trick is that some parts cook more slowly than the rest, so it curls up, and your dinner comes with a surprise ending.
Wee ones: Put a piece of paper flat on the table. Can you curl it into a new shape?
Little kids: If you eat a short piece of pasta, then a long noodle, then a short piece, then a long noodle, which style of pasta do you eat next? Bonus: This pasta takes 12 minutes of cooking to pop into shape. If you’ve been cooking for 7 minutes, how many minutes of cooking are left?
Big kids: If a normal box of curly spaghetti has 100 noodles and this type can fit 50% more noodles in the box, how many noodles can fit in the box? Bonus: If that pasta is 12 inches long before cooking but only 10 inches long after cooking, how many more cooked noodles than dry noodles would it take to make a 5-foot long line of pasta?
Answers:
Wee ones: Try to bend or wrap the paper into a new shape! For example, you could make a tube like ziti.
Little kids: A short piece. Bonus: 5 more minutes.
Big kids: 150 noodles. Bonus: Just 1 more cooked noodle. There are 60 inches in 5 feet, so it takes 60 / 10 = 6 cooked noodles to add up to 5 feet, compared to 60 / 12 = 5 dry noodles.
