I've tried a whole bunch of TikTok food and drink hacks, but honestly, I'm sometimes pretty wary of the latest viral cooking trends (Looking at you, mini pancake cereal.)
But then I caught wind of the latest TikTok sensation — the famous pasta chips that have gone viral in the past few weeks — and I simply had to try them.
I already had all the ingredients in my kitchen (and chances are, you do too), so I figured why not try my hand at making pasta chips?
I wanted to experiment a bit, so I tried using four different pasta shapes: rigatoni, farfalle, fusilli, and the wild card: small pesto-filled tortellini.
The method is very simple. Boil and strain some pasta, toss it in olive oil, Parmesan, and whatever spices you have on hand.
Then toss the seasoned pasta into an air fryer and cook until golden brown and crispy. For me, that took about 15 minutes at 400°, and I tossed the pasta about four times throughout.
After 15 minutes in the air fryer, all of the pasta shapes had turned golden brown and extremely crunchy.
For the sake of ~pasta science~, I also wanted try making the pasta chips in a regular oven. I roasted them on a sheet pan in an even layer at 425°F for about 25 minutes until they had a nice golden color to them.
The result was almost as crunchy as the air fryer method, only it took a bit longer. The oven baked pasta chips still had a little bit of starch to them and tasted more like really al dente pasta which, TBH, I think I liked better. Not to mention they made my apartment smell like lasagna, which I'd certainly never be mad about.
I served the pasta chips with marinara sauce, pesto, and ricotta for dipping, and they were pretty darn tasty.
The tortellini was still the most tender and pasta-like, and it ended up being my favorite because it still had some doughiness to it. The fusilli was the most crispy, almost like the texture of a thin breadstick.
If you're wondering what the pasta chips taste like, well... it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect: as if a chip and a noodle had a baby.
IMHO, the sauce is an extremely important element here. You could certainly snack on these pasta chips by the handful without dunking them in anything, but they're far better when dipped in your favorite pasta sauce.
I stored the pasta chips in a plastic bag over night, and honestly I preferred the flavor and texture of them the next day when they reached peak cracker-like-consistency.
Overall, I'm glad I tried making pasta chips. It's a creative and tasty way to turn ingredients I already had in my kitchen into a pretty cravre-worthy snack. And seriously, it's hard to stop eating them.
If you love pasta and you're craving something crunchy, you'll probably love these.
