Courgette green tikka pasta salad. Broccoli & black bean rayu rigatoni. Harissa mackerel casarecce. These recipes from Northern Pasta’s Instagram (@northernpastaco) over recent weeks had almost 13,000 combined views as The Grocer went to press, demonstrating pasta fans’ appetite for fancy flavours.

It’s also been seen elsewhere online in recent years. Take Gigi Hadid’s spicy vodka pasta, which went viral in 2020 after the supermodel shared it to Instagram and TikTok.

Then there was marry me pasta, which features chicken, sundried tomatoes, lemon and parmesan in a creamy sauce. The dish appeared in Google searches in 2023 and has continued to gain traction since [Google Trends 3 y/e 18 September 2026].