The Spaghetti Donut Is The Latest Weird Food Trend To Gain Steam

If you’ve ever eaten a doughnut and thought to yourself, “you know what this could use? Some marinara sauce,” then do we have the treat for you. A spaghetti doughnut is the hot new offering at New York City’s Smorgasburg food market, and apparently people are really into it.

The spaghetti doughnut was invented by Pop Pasta, and it’s basically exactly the same as the popular pasta-hybrid called “spaghetti pie.” It’s just pasta mixed with egg and cheese before being baked. Instead of being baked in a pie dish, however, it’s in a doughnut shape which makes it portable. Actually that doesn’t sound too bad at all, provided the noodles don’t get overcooked.

According to the Pop Pasta website, the treat “combines a popular Neapolitan dish, the spaghetti pie (frittata di spaghetti) with an American food icon, the donut. Slow food meets fast food. In the Neapolitan tradition the spaghetti pie is a dish prepared with pasta leftovers combined with eggs and cheese and then fried.”

The spaghetti doughnut comes in several flavors including the Aglio e Olio Pop (Parmigiano, eggs, olive oil, garlic, and spices), Red Sauce Pop (exactly what it sounds like), Zucchini Pop (with the addition of zucchini), Carbonara Pop (added bacon), and the Bolognese Pop (just like the “Red Sauce” version but with ground beef, AKA a bolognese sauce). And Pop Pasta says more flavors are coming soon if none of these tickle your fancy. Perhaps a cacio e pepe version to cash in on two mega food trends at once?

“I’ve been cooking since I was 15 years old,” Luigi Fiorentino, founder of Pop Pasta, told Food & Wine in an interview. A native Italian, Fiorentino now lives in New York. All the spaghetti doughnuts are made in Brooklyn (are you surprised?).

“I’ve always liked to take a tradition and part with it in order to create something innovative. I went with something that’s very traditional, the spaghetti pie. The doughnut is like something you love already, but done in a different way.”

Even though it looks kind of strange, I must admit… I’d try it. Who’s with me?