I tried 2 new pasta shapes from the creators of the viral cascatelli noodle and thought they were fun, but I wouldn't buy them again

After finding success with cascatelli — the newly concocted pasta shape from podcaster Dan Pashman and American pasta maker Sfoglini — the team decided to bring two shapes overseas from Italy in January: quattrotini and vesuvio. 

When Pashman was promoting his cascatelli shape, he said he was looking to develop a noodle with three main qualities, Insider previously reported. His three qualities were sauceability (how well sauce sticks to the pasta), formability (how easy it is to pick up the piece with a fork), and toothsinkability (how satisfying it is to sink your teeth into).

While examining the quattrotini and vesuvio shapes, which the Sfoglini team sent to Insider for review, I kept these three qualities in mind. (Consumers can buy a six-pack of each from the Sfoglini website for $32.94.)

According to the brand, quattrotini is a reimagining of cinque buchi, a Sicilian pasta shape typically eaten during carnival. Sfoglini writes, "legend says the Devil uses it to tempt residents with the sin of gluttony." 

Sfoglini took the classic shape and added ridges to the outside of the four corner tubes, and renamed it to emphasize those elements. 

Vesuvio is named for its likeness to the volcano, Mount Vesuvius. According to the brand, this shape is popular among towns that surround the Italian volcano, but it's harder to come by in the US. 

I bought a jar of Rao's tomato basil sauce for a simple dish, and I got a single sausage link and some broccolini for a garlic and oil-style dish. 

These are the two most common ways I personally make and eat pasta at home, so I thought it would be the best way for me to test out these two shapes. 

The small tubes and exterior ridges all made perfect places for a velvety sauce to call home. I was able to evenly coat the pasta — inside and out — which helped deliver the maximum amount of flavor from my favorite jarred sauce. 

Pashman definitely nailed the sauceability aspect of this shape. 

For this dish, the pasta and the sauce each seemed like their own entity. While the sausage, vegetable, and bits of garlic were unified, once they hit the quattrotini they seemed to become less cohesive.

I thought it made the dish less enjoyable to eat.

While it was a fun shape to have in my bowl, I couldn't get more than one noodle on my fork at a time. And if I managed to pick up two, I couldn't really fit them both in my mouth together without having to chew uncomfortably. 

I think the pasta shape would be great for a baked ziti-style dish, where you're using a fork and knife to cut and eat the noodles instead.

The curved edges of each vesuvio layer wrapped themselves around any small bits of broccolini, sausage, and garlic that were in the area. This way, when I picked up a noodle, I got bites of everything all at once. 

I tried it with the tomato sauce, and, to me, this felt like a lot of the same thing. 

The layers of sauce were appreciated, (and sauceability was definitely high) but it was too much for my taste. Because of that, I preferred this shape with a multi-ingredient dish instead of a plain sauce. 

I also made the vesuvio cacio e pepe-style at home one day, and I thought it worked really well. I also think it would be a good mac and cheese noodle as the thick cheese would wrap well around each curve of the noodle making it a bit more substantial than it was with a thinner tomato sauce. 

However, this shape is still a little tough to pick up with a fork — I often found myself looking for the best point of entry, which complicated the eating experience — and once I got it, it felt clunky in my mouth as I was eating. 

While I'm guessing the vessuvio would taste great in a mac and cheese dish, and that the quattrotini would be delightful as a baked meal, that's still not enough to get me to use either as a pantry pasta. 

When it comes down to it, I simply didn't love the eating experience of either shape. 

I'm sure each has its own perfect use, but I wasn't able to find them during this taste test. But if you're looking for a fun way to shake up your dinner, and you're a fan of large noodles, then these are worth a try.