Spaghetti

Spaghetti is a long, thin kind of pasta from Italy. It is a key part of Italian meals. Like other pasta, spaghetti is made from wheat and water. Sometimes it is made with a special kind of wheat called durum-wheat semolina, which helps it feel nice.

Spaghetti is usually white because it is made from refined flour, but sometimes it is made with whole wheat flour for extra nutrients. Spaghetti comes in different thicknesses: spaghettoni is thick, spaghettini is thin, and capellini is very thin.

Today, many people prefer shorter lengths of spaghetti. The most common length is about 25 to 30 centimeters, or 10 to 12 inches. Spaghetti is often served with tomato sauce, meat, or vegetables, and it is enjoyed in many countries around the world.

History

See also: Pasta § History

Spaghetti started as a kind of thin bread from the Middle East. People would flatten and dry this bread to keep it fresh. Later, in Persia, people cut this bread into strips and called it rishta.

As people traveled, the idea of drying pasta spread. By the 7th century, Arabs brought this idea to places like Sicily. There, it mixed with local ways of making fresh pasta. By the 12th century, farms in Sicily were making lots of this long, dried pasta.

Over time, spaghetti became a common food in Italy. In the 17th century, especially in Naples, it became a staple food for everyone. People began cooking it faster and enjoying it with tomato sauces. By the mid-20th century, Italy was making a lot of spaghetti, both for its own people and to share with the world.

The story that Marco Polo brought pasta from China to Italy is just a legend. This idea started long after Polo's time and was likely a mix-up of facts.

Production

Spaghetti is made from ground grain (flour) and water. You can also find whole wheat and multigrain spaghetti. Most spaghetti is made in factories using special machines. The ingredients are mixed and shaped to make sure the pasta is smooth. The machines are cooled with water to keep the pasta from getting too hot. When the spaghetti is drying, workers make sure the strands don’t stick together.

In Naples, spaghetti is made thinner than in the United States. There are different sizes of spaghetti: spaghettoni is thicker, and spaghettini is thinner.

Nutrition

Pasta gives us important things our bodies need, like carbohydrates, protein, iron, dietary fiber, potassium, and B vitamins. When pasta is made from whole wheat, it has more dietary fiber than pasta made from regular flour.

Preparation

Spaghetti can be fresh or dry. It is cooked in a big pot of boiling water with salt. After cooking, the water is drained using a special container called a colander. Sometimes, spaghetti is cooked so it is still a little firm when you bite it. This is called al dente.

In some parts of Italy, spaghetti is broken into smaller pieces and served with vegetables, beans, or in a soup. This started a long time ago when money was tight. Breaking the spaghetti helped save food. Today, broken pieces of spaghetti are still sold and sometimes given to hospitals and nursing homes.

Serving

Main article: List of pasta dishes

Spaghetti is a popular Italian cuisine dish. It is often served with tomato sauce that has herbs like oregano and basil, olive oil, meat, or vegetables. Other ways to prepare spaghetti include amatriciana or carbonara, with grated hard cheeses such as pecorino romano, Parmesan, and Grana Padano on top.

In the Philippines, there is a special version called Filipino spaghetti. This type is sweet and uses banana ketchup or sugar to sweeten the tomato sauce. It often includes giniling (ground meat), sliced hot dogs, and cheese. This dish began between the 1940s and 1960s when there was not enough tomatoes during World War II. Spaghetti was brought by Americans and changed to suit local tastes for sweet food.

• Spaghetti dishes

  Spaghetti alla carbonara

_[Spaghetti alle vongole](/wiki/Spaghetti_alle_vongole)_

_[Spaghetti aglio e olio](/wiki/Spaghetti_aglio_e_olio)_

• .jpg)

  Spaghetti alla puttanesca

_[Spaghetti alla Nerano](/wiki/Spaghetti_alla_Nerano)_

• _(cropped).jpg)

  Spaghetti bolognese, common outside of Italy

In popular culture

Spaghetti has been part of many fun and famous moments in movies and TV. In the 1931 silent film City Lights, the actor Charlie Chaplin tried to eat a very long piece of spaghetti, which made for a funny scene. Another famous moment happened in the 1955 animated film Lady and the Tramp, where the two main characters shared a plate of spaghetti and accidentally kissed while eating the same strand. This scene is very well-remembered.

The TV program Panorama once showed a made-up story about spaghetti growing in Switzerland on April Fools' Day in 1957 for fun.

Sometimes, messy or tangled computer source code is called spaghetti code because it looks like a jumble of spaghetti. The same idea applies to messy cable management, called "cable spaghetti". In clothing, very thin straps on a dress or top are called "spaghetti straps". The term spaghetti Western describes Western-style movies made in Europe by Italians.