Barilla Is Releasing a New Pasta Shape This Month

Hint: they're perfect for *that* viral mac and cheese.

When you think of the pasta aisle, there are always a few brands that stand out to you—one of them, likely, being the ever-iconic Barilla. In a world filled with decision fatigue, a tried-and-true like Barilla, with its countless shapes and brightly colored box, will never let you down.

Barilla sells dozens of different pastas in all shapes and sizes—plus varieties outside its Classic Blue Box, like Chickpea, Ready Pasta, and Protein+.

It’s clear Barilla knows a thing or two about pastas—the company has been around and making homemade pasta since 1877. So, when it expands its line to include new pasta and shapes, we already know it’ll be great.

So, what’s Barilla up to now? It’s expanding and rebranding its Protein+ pasta.

Barilla Launches New Protein+ Cellentani

The Protein+ pasta line has been around for years in seven varieties. Since its creation, the only change Barilla made to the protein-packed pasta is changing the recipe to include plant-based pulses, like chickpeas, lentils, and golden wheat, instead of the original egg. But Barilla has never added any new shapes to the line—until now.

This month, Barilla is introducing its corkscrew Cellentani shape to the Protein+ portfolio. The shape, pronounced “CHELL-en-tah-nee” is a popular variety in Barilla’s Classic Blue Box, but has never been offered in another pasta line.

The Cellentani shape was originally created by Barilla in the 1960s to honor the Italian singer Adriano Celentano’s springy dance movies. It’s a larger corkscrew noodle that might remind you of a cavatappi noodle. That’s because it’s essentially the same thing.

While the name is specific to Barilla—and the company was the first to create the shape—many more pasta companies copied the springy noodle but with the name cavatappi (which means “corkscrew” in Italian), according to DeLallo.

Today, the Cellentani is only sold by Barilla in its Blue Box pasta and now Protein+. The Protein+ variety will be made with golden wheat and plant-based protein to provide 17 grams of protein and 10 grams of fiber in every serving.

Barilla’s Protein+ Cellentani is available now at Wegmans and on Amazon, but it will soon hit Kroger stores nationwide.

With the new pasta will also come a new look for the Protein+ box. Barilla is updating the color palette and look on its Protein+ Angel Hair, Elbows, Farfalle, Penne, Rotini, Spaghetti, Thin Spaghetti, and, of course, Cellentani boxes.

How To Use Cellentani Pasta

For those looking to add a little more protein to their diet with the new corkscrew pasta—we have some recipe recommendations. It’s the perfect noodle for Tini’s viral mac and cheese, your summer macaroni salad, or any other pasta recipe where you need the sauce to cling to the noodle, since Cellentani is ridged to allow sauces to stick to it better.

However you use it, we’re sure this fun shape will become a pantry staple pretty soon.

Read the original article on All Recipes.