There are two phenomena that have the power to unite almost everyone: food and art. We need one to survive, while the other adds nuance and joy to our lives. Sometimes nature brings these two things together, but when this Instagrammer created designs using our favorite carb-loaded meal — pasta, duh — we were amazed.
Linda Miller Nicholson is an artist, the author of a cookbook Pasta, Pretty Please, and the creator of the most visually stimulating plates of pasta on the internet. Using over 25 different colors of pasta dough with vegetables, herbs, and natural colors, Linda has turned pasta into some of the most beautiful and mouthwatering concepts we’ve ever seen.
Linda creates her vivid colorful pasta palette using butterfly pea flowers for the color blue, beets and blueberries to form deep purple hues, turmeric for bright yellow, and parsley to infuse an earthy green into her dough mixtures. We’re fans of buying squid ink pasta and spinach spaghetti as much as the next person, but the colors in these store-bought versions are far from being as vibrant as Linda’s creations. So what’s her secret? These freshly made pasta allow for quicker cooking times, so colors maintain their eye-popping shades.
We looked at Linda’s most unbelievable creations that make the world more vibrant and colorful, one pasta at a time.
Linda Began Cooking At A Young Age
The Seattle-based cook actually honed her passion between Idaho and California.
Remember making pasta frames at school? Well, something about that must have resonated with Linda because she’s been making pasta art since she was just four-years-old. After her parents moved from Los Angeles to a small town in Idaho, she spent her summers with her grandparents back in California where she learned how to make her own pasta.
But It Was The Death Of A Friend That Turned Her To Pasta
In Idaho, Linda’s only friend was a cow named Slobber.
According to Today, Linda became a vegetarian at the age of 10 after learning that Slobber had been slaughtered in the name of dinner. While being vegetarian for some people seems extremely limiting, at such a young age Linda knew what she’d do next. She decided to sharpen her pasta-making skills— little did she know that one day this would be her career.
Her Picky Son Gave Her A ‘Eureka Moment’
Linda had a breakthrough while struggling to feed her son.
At the age of four, her son Bentley refused to eat his vegetables.”I was so frustrated because food is my life and I wanted to feed him in somewhat of a healthy fashion,” she told TODAY Food. “The one food he’d eat was pasta. The one thing I love to make is pasta. It was a eureka moment.”
This Is When Colorful Pasta Entered Her World
Dinner just got a little more fun.
Trying to bring her love of pasta to Bentley by creating more colorful meals, Linda looked to traditional green Italian pasta dyed with nettles. She decided to take that traditional dye approach with all the colors of the rainbow. According to Seattle Times, she gave her son these doughs to play with as “edible play dough,” and it was a hit. This led to new shapes, flavors, patterns, and even the use of cake decorating tools like piping tips and fondant cutters for the colorful pasta.
Time In Italy Shaped Her Knowledge
Three years in Turin, Italy, taught Linda a lot.
Before her son was born, she traveled through Italy with her then-boyfriend (who became her husband) and picked up the traditional art of making pasta. Linda was also finishing a graduate degree and teaching English, but she fit in plenty of time to pick up skills from observing. While many people credit her as being self-taught’ she insists, there’s “no such thing as self-taught.”
Her Passion For Colorful Pasta Turned Into A Business
Linda owns her own cooking studio in Seattle.
The Seattle cook turned her love of colorful pasta into a teachable moment with her cooking studio, Salty Seattle, located in downtown Seattle, Washington. “I’ve made pasta with 5 and 85 year olds,” she told Inlander. “People find they have a great sense of accomplishment when they are done and are super proud of themselves.”
Pasta, Pretty Please Reveals All
In her first cookbook, Linda gets into the nitty-gritty of making pasta— and just how easy it is.
Inside Pasta, Pretty Please, Linda shares 25 versions of pasta dough. Each are colored with spices, herbs, fruits, and vegetables like paprika, blueberries, and even activated charcoal. There are different methods for sheeting pasta, cutting it into different shapes, and rolling the perfect gnocchi. The last chapter even gets into delicious Italian sauces to go with your new handmade creations.
And She Insists It’s Easier Than You Think!
Pasta isn’t an exact science and is more forgiving than other foods.
If you’re a beginner, Linda has one piece of advice: “jump in.” Pastries, cakes, and self-saucing puddings require bakers to adhere to strict instructions or risk everything falling apart— pasta is more merciful. “Pasta is not like pie dough. It’s not like making cake. It’s extremely forgiving and it’s not an exact science,” Linda explained. “If it sticks to your fingers, you add flour, and if the dough is crumbly and too dry, you add more liquid.”
She Put Up A Pasta Installation In June 2019
The pasta puzzle took her creations to the next level.
In Aspen, Colorado, at the Food & Wine Classic, Linda teamed up with beer company Peroni to create an interactive pasta art installation. While serving up a slew of technicolor dishes, the “pasta ninja” had guests assisting her in modeling a “farfalle pasta puzzle”. Linda wrote on Instagram: “This festival showed me through the thousands of smiles, exclamations, hugs & even happy tears, that I’m actually touching lives.”
But She’s Always Enjoyed Toeing The Line Between Food And Art
This Kate Spade-inspired pasta says it all.
This hand-rolled fettuccine was inspired by one of Linda’s favorite designers and fabrics. The vibrant and kitsch daisy print comes from Kate Spade’s 2016 fashion show. “Trynna show the world that pasta is fashion, one batch at a time,” Linda wrote. “As always, natural vegetable-based ingredients, no artificial dyes. Thanks for the inspo.”
She’s Inspired By Other Renegades
This graffiti-inspired piece is almost too good to eat.
Linda’s Banksy-inspired piece takes one of his most recognizable pieces and turns it into pasta. Her Banksy series continues to unfold on her Instagram. She’s also done little nods to pop art, with what we think looks like Andy Warhol-inspired bananas, a rainbow Martin Luther King Jr. flag, and little candy skull ravioli for DÃa de Muertos (Day of the Dead).
We Can’t Believe It’s Not Cereal
“It’s pasta, duh!”
When scrolling through Linda’s Instagram, we came across what looked like a bowl of Fruity Pebbles cereal. But upon quick inspection, we realized it was actually pasta. The pasta is fregola sarda, a small Sardinian pasta shape that is made from semolina dough and rolled into little balls, resembling cereal.
She Even Creates Celebrity Portraits
The resemblance is uncanny.
It might be because she has one of the most recognizable faces in the world, but this colorful pasta composition of Ellen Degeneres is incredibly accurate. The TV host’s face is completed with spaghetti and heart-shaped ravioli colored with delicious natural colors and flavors including cacao, beet, harissa, activated charcoal, dragon fruit, and tofu. This vegan deliciousness is almost too much.
Linda Reveals All Of Her Colorful Pasta Secrets On YouTube
[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjXu5z_WbbA"]These behind-the-scene videos show you how to cook just like Linda — and we’re thrilled!
Despite Linda’s creations transforming what was a hobby into an illustrious career, she is adamant to share the process with others. You too can make these very same rainbow-colored pasta if you dare. From explaining specific coloring techniques to taking viewers through the process of making famous dishes from her Instagram, Linda really does want to share her gift.
