When this pandemic started, I happened to be at a Kroger store that still had some pasta on the shelves, and it was on sale for $1 ea. Barilla brand--not my favorite, I still haven't forgiven them for the anti-gay stuff--but circumstantially I couldn't afford to be choosy. I bought one or two of almost every shape they had left, including a box of elbow macaroni.
Even though I never buy elbow macaroni. It's a boring old-fashioned shape I have no use for. I know it's 'classic' for mac & cheese but even for that I would prefer other things.
But last week I bought a stalk of celery that had tons of leaves still on it, which suggested that a very celery-intense pasta salad was in order and that boring elbow macaroni would work fine.
Only, turns out, this isn't the boring elbow macaroni I remember. First of all each little half moon shape had a bit of a twist to it, the open ends were not on the same plane, a simple innovation that negates clumping. Secondly, the pasta was ribbed for 100 times better collection of dressing. It made a pretty fantastic pasta salad: finely diced sweet onion, chopped celery, celery leaves, celery seed, oil and vinegar. That's it. I'll buy it again.
So just in case you're stuck in the past like me, you might want to know about this for your next summer pasta salad. Good stuff.