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Sponsorships are a funny thing — like, why are many of the so-called “official foods” of professional sports teams the exact opposite of what athletes eat? And while we’re at it, why would a pasta company partner with an auto racing league? Such is the case with Barilla, which is not only the official pasta of Formula 1 but has now come out with Formula 1-inspired noodles called Barilla Racing Wheels.
As it turns out, Formula 1 has a connection with Barilla that goes a bit deeper than, say, that between WWE and Slim Jim (although the late, great Macho Man Randy Savage did help take spicy meat sticks from bar snacks to backpacks). Paolo Barilla, scion of the pasta company-owning family, was a race driver himself in his younger days, winning the 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans. After his racing career, he went to work for the family firm, which just so happens to be the world’s premier pasta producer. Nearly four decades later, he took over as deputy chairman of the Barilla Group.
As of now, Barilla Racing Wheels are available for order from Walmart’s website. Later this spring, however, you should be able to find them in other stores, as the product isn’t a Walmart exclusive.
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Barilla didn’t exactly invent the wheel
Barilla Racing Wheels pasta with cherry tomatoes in a white bowl – Walmart
Novelty-shaped pasta is nothing new. Fun holiday pasta shapes are often available at Aldi and Trader Joe’s, while Campbell’s is always coming out with kid-friendly soups where the noodles are meant to look like Pokémon or Paw Patrol characters. Nor is Barilla’s Racing Wheels the first wheel-shaped pasta to hit the market, since rotelle or ruote (which is another pasta shape you’re unlikely to find at Olive Garden) has been around since the turn of the 20th century. While rotelle is sometimes called “wagon wheel” pasta, it was created at a time when people were interested in progress and machinery of all sorts, so it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that some of the early automobiles may have inspired its shape, as well. (The first Italian-manufactured car dates to 1899.)
Rotelle pasta — and by extension, Barilla Racing Wheels — is thick and chunky, with gaps between the wheel spokes that are perfect for holding sauce. Racing Wheels, however, have a design that’s a bit more fiddly, since besides the spokes there are bits and bumps designed to resemble rims and hubcaps. These details don’t appear to make the pasta pieces significantly more delicate, though, so they’ll hold up well in any type of pasta sauce, whether creamy or chunky. Their sturdy, compact shape would also make them ideal for pasta salad.
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