These Are My Cascatelli Shoes

2024-12-19

Involuntary memories of a pasta shape I still haven't tried

This summer I bought a new pair of running shoes. Great shoes actually, a pair of Asics Gel Kayano 31.

I tend to pronate when I run, so I need a shoe that provides good support. I’ve had Kayanos before, and the former pairs gave good support and had a good, firm sole.

Not these ones.

They’re really, really soft, squishy all most.

It feels like I’m walking on a cloud, or a mattress. Which is not far from the truth, because the sole is made of one big piece of foam-like material.

I knew I had to break them in, not go long on the first couple for runs.

But also to get some frequent runs in, to get used to the shoe and not get injured.

So I put on my new shoes, which almost feel like I’m wearing high heels, and then on to the streets of Copenhagen.

I almost always listen to podcasts or books when I run. Sometimes music, but frankly I love listening to stories when I run, and to get transported in to something interesting and kind of forget that I’m running.

I’m not the best runner, but I try and run once or twice a week. My main thing is crossfit, which is why I’m a probably a bit heavier and slower than most runners.

All that just to say I don’t get a kick out of running in itself, I’m not training for anything, but it’s nice and I feel amazing afterwards.

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I’ve been injured a couple of times, last time was when I ran a 15K trail run on Møns Klint. But the worst was from a bad crossfit class, where I tore my achilles tendon, had surgery and was out for 6 months. It was 12 years ago, but I’ve never really regained the strength in that foot or that leg, which probably also affects my running.

Anywho: that’s why I need a good shoe, and that’s why I was breaking my new Kayanos in easy.

But here’s the thing, and here’s why, to this day, they remind me of pasta.

I decided to listen to this new podcast series I’ve stumbled upon called the Sporkful. I think I sampled an episode via 99% Invisible - my favorite podcast series ever - and then I subscribed to the whole thing.

Specifically I listened to the episode about pasta shapes, the invention of a new pasta and writing a book about it. I think it was called Mission Impastable, which is an amazing title.

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So this guy decides to invent a new pasta shape, and he goes through all the steps of designing, prototyping, testing and naming it. It was intended to have a great mouthfeel, to be able to hold a lot of sauce, and to be easy to cook. And the host goes on and on and does all this research and makes prototypes and explains in excrutiating detail how pasta is made, what qualities different shapes have, the balance between tradition and innovation, how some shapes work in theory but break when cooked, and on and on. It was fastinating.

And there I was, in my new running shoes, taking all this in. I completely disappeared in the world of pasta, pasta-making, sauces and recipes while running.

On each of these initial runs in these new shoes, I would continue to listen to the story of the invention of a new pasta shape, the Cascatelli, and how it was named after a waterfall, and how it was designed to be a perfect pasta shape.

And now… I can’t forget that. Somehow, that story, the shape of that new pasta, the shape of that new shoe, and even the color of that new shoes, a bright yellow-green very vibrant thing, just always reminds me of … pasta.

To make matters worse, you can’t actually get Cascatelli in Denmark! I think it’s exclusive to the U.S. or something.

So I’m left with this involuntary memory of a pasta shape I still haven’t tried, and a pair of shoes that I can’t help but associate with pasta.

I think it’s interesting how the brain can associate certain sensory information and couple it, so whatever background noise was there while your eyes saw a certain thing or your body felt a certain thing — those things can get forever intertwined, in oddly specific and highly detailed ways. There’s a certain connection in my brain between Fatboy Slim’s Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars and Harry Potter and The Goble of Fire, because I listened to that album on repeat while reading that book. Jamie Woon’s Mirrorwriting is equivalent to flying to Vancouver, which I did a lot the year that album came out.

The association is almost involuntary, it’s just a funny little coincidence, but it will almost always pop up in a very weird way.

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I now have 250km in my Cascatelli shoes. I hope they last a long time.

And that I’ll finally be able to try that pasta.