A self-taught home cook makes stunning pasta in a rainbow of different colors

Fiona Afshar uses bright foods to color her pasta.cookingwithfiona/Instagram

• Fiona Afshar is a home cook who taught herself how to make pasta by watching video tutorials.
• She draws inspiration from her local farmer's market in Malibu and from other pasta-makers sharing their work on social media.
• Afshar encourages amateur home cooks to make pasta themselves, saying it's simpler than you might think.
• She incorporates everything from vegetables and herbs to charcoal and spirulina to get colorful pasta dough, and often adds artistic patterns.

Fiona Afshar was a computer programmer-turned-florist before she taught herself to make pasta by hand. Bringing her artistic talents into her kitchen in Malibu, California, the home cook told Insider how she started making pasta around a year and a half ago, and that it has become a form of self-expression.

"Pasta-making is very special, magical, and therapeutic," Afshar told Insider.

She uses pasta-making as an opportunity to experiment with food and often incorporates nutritional foods such as roasted vegetables and herbs into her creations to give them vibrant, natural colors. She sometimes adds playful patterns to her pasta, which you can find adorned with flowers and even ice cream cones.

Afshar started posting videos to her YouTube channel in 2019, sharing tutorials for how to master the art of pasta-making. She said that turning her hobby into a profitable business isn't her goal, though; her priority is getting everyday cooks to give homemade pasta a try.