Spaghetti

{{Short description|Type of pasta}} {{Other uses}} {{pp-pc|small=yes}} {{Use American English|date=February 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}}

thumb|''Spaghettoni'' hung to dry '''Spaghetti''' ({{IPA|it|spaˈɡetti|lang}}) is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta.<ref name="dict">{{cite web|title=spaghetti|url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/spaghetti|website=dictionary.cambridge.org|date=2026-01-28|access-date=2026-01-31|language=en}}</ref> It serves as a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine and is made of milled wheat{{em dash}}sometimes enriched with vitamins and minerals{{em dash}}and water, with the authentic Italian version typically requiring durum-wheat semolina.<ref name="nhg">{{cite web|url=http://www.bhg.com/recipes/ethnic-food/italian/how-to-make-spaghetti/|title=How to Make Spaghetti|publisher=Better Homes and Gardens}} Retrieved on 22 December 2014.</ref> The pasta is usually white because refined flour is used, but whole wheat flour may be added.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Suo|first1=Xinying|last2=Pompei|first2=Francesca|last3=Bonfini|first3=Matteo|last4=Mustafa|first4=Ahmed M.|last5=Sagratini|first5=Gianni|last6=Wang|first6=Zhangcun|last7=Vittadin|first7=Elena|date=2023-03-01|title=Quality of wholemeal pasta made with pigmented and ancient wheats|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878450X23000070|journal=International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science|volume=31|article-number=100665|doi=10.1016/j.ijgfs.2023.100665|issn=1878-450X|hdl=11581/468816|hdl-access=free}}</ref> ''Spaghettoni'' is a thicker form of spaghetti, while spaghettini is a thinner form. Capellini is a very thin spaghetti, while vermicelli refers to intermediate thicknesses. [[File:Drying Spaghetti in Gragnano.jpg|thumb|Drying spaghetti in a factory in Gragnano]] Originally, spaghetti was notably long, but shorter lengths gained in popularity during the second half of the 20th century. Today, it is most commonly available in lengths of {{cvt|25|-|30|cm|in|0}}. A variety of pasta dishes are based on it, and it is frequently served with tomato sauce, meat or vegetables.

==History==

{{See also|Pasta#History}}

===Early===

thumb|upright|14th century depiction of pasta making

Spaghetti has its origin in an ancient, thin, and generally unleavened bread from the Middle East. This was known under various names at different times, including Asian Bread in some texts of antiquity, and ''lakhsha'' in the Persian Sasanian Empire. The bread was flattened, sometimes by hand, and at other times with a rolling pin, and was occasionally dried for preservation. Under the Sasanian Empire, it took on the name ''rishta'' when cut into strips or strings before drying, the term possibly deriving from the Iranian word ''risnatu'', for which records of use exist as far back as the 2nd millennium{{nbsp}}BC.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|p=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/30/31]}}

Coinciding with this emerging tradition of drying pasta in Persia, pasta was eaten throughout antiquity in Roman and Greek societies after arriving from the Middle East.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|p=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/30/31]}}{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/32/32–33]}} There too, pasta was sometimes dried, most frequently the long, stretched doughs.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|p=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/34/35]}} In the 7th century, Arabs conquered Persia, and thereafter spread the dried pasta custom throughout the lands they occupied, which included Sicily from the 9th century. There, the dried pasta practice became associated with the European traditions of making fresh pasta, and the name ''itriyya'' entered the language, meaning "long-form dried pasta".{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/34/35]–[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/36/37]}}

===Arrival in the Italian peninsula===

By the mid-12th century, records exist of several farms in Sicily producing ''itriyya'' at scale for local and export markets.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/36/37]–[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/38/38]}} Over the following centuries, this pasta appeared in Italian cookbooks, albeit infrequently.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|p=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/40/41]}} A precise description of the manufacture of "Sicilian macaroni" is given by Martino da Como in the later 15th century: a ball of dough, stretched thin, cut with a wire as "thin as ''spagho'' (string)", dried under the sun.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/42/42–43]}} The duration of this drying process varied with weather and humidity, but twelve days in the summer was typical.{{sfn|Serventi|Sabban|2002|p=[https://archive.org/details/pastastoryofuniv00silv/page/112/113]}} In another recipe for a Genoese pasta, Martino employs ''spagho'' for the first time in a culinary context when he says pasta ought to be cut "as thin as a ''spagho''".{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/42/42–43]}} Several tools were employed for this cutting process, including ''chitarra'' in areas of southern Italy, which consisted of a wooden frame strung with wires, lowered onto the dough.{{sfn|Serventi|Sabban|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/pastastoryofuniv00silv/page/82/83]–[https://archive.org/details/pastastoryofuniv00silv/page/82/84]}}

Pasta at this time was cooked for much longer than it is today; Martino recommends his Sicilian macaroni boil in water for two hours to achieve a desired, very soft texture. Contemporary ideas of how this pasta should be served was based on the ideas of physicians, who followed Hippocrates and Galen's principle of {{lang|la|contraria contrariis curantur}} ({{gloss|opposites cure opposites}}). For a very soft pasta, this meant expensive accompaniments of dried spices and pepper.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/50/50–51]}} Cheese, particularly the drier, aged varieties, was another common pairing for the same reason, the most popular for the task by the mid-15th century being pecorino and parmigiano.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/54/54]–[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/56/56]}} The slippery texture and hot serving temperature of pasta facilitated the introduction of the fork to Italy, replacing earlier practices of eating pasta and other foods by hand, and by the 14th century, the first descriptions of spaghetti being twirled with a fork were emerging.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/56/57]–[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/58/59]}}

===Later===

[[File:Sommer, Giorgio (1834-1914) - n. 6144 - (Mangiamaccheroni).jpg|thumb|upright|19th century photograph of Neapolitans eating spaghetti in the street (photo by Giorgio Sommer)]]

In the 17th century, the region associated most with pasta moved from Sicily to Naples. Around 1630, Naples under Spanish rule was experiencing famines with a reduced supply of meat and vegetables due to poor governance. As technology permitting industrial mixing and extrusion dramatically reduced prices of output, pasta became a staple food, no longer the domain of the elite.{{sfn|Montanari|2013|pp=41–42}}{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/62/62–63]}} It is in this century that short cook times and firmer pasta textures emerged, although at first only for fresh pasta; it took until the mid-19th century in Naples for records of cooks taking a short cook time and firm texture for granted.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/66/66–67]}}

Around this time, pairing tomato sauces with pastas was becoming established among the Naples populace, the first records of the combination having appeared at the end of the previous century.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/80/81]–[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/82/83]}} Grated cheese remained an essential element in preparations, although unlike in modern servings, sauces were served over grated cheese. It was not until the 20th century that the inverse became established.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|pp=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/84/84–85]}}

By the 1920s, food writer Waverley Root could witness scenes in Naples of "home-made macaroni hung out to dry like the family washing—at the mercy of dust, dirt, insects and the depredations of passing pigeons, children and dogs".{{sfn|Root|1968|p=[https://archive.org/details/cookingofitalyfo0000wave/page/162/162]}} By 1955, annual consumption of spaghetti in Italy doubled from {{cvt|14|kg|lb|0}} per person before World War II to {{cvt|28|kg|lb|0}}.<ref name="1955cons">{{cite news|last=Salerno|first=George|date=13 December 1956|title=Spaghetti consumption up as national dish in Italy|newspaper=Wilmington Morning Star|location=Wilmington, North Carolina|volume=90|number=52|agency=United Press}}</ref> In that year, Italy produced almost 1.5 million tons of spaghetti, of which approximately 5% was exported.<ref name="1955cons"/>

===Marco Polo story===

Through the end of the 13th century, the Venetian merchant and adventurer Marco Polo travelled into Asia, detailing his expedition in ''The Travels of Marco Polo''. Two centuries later, the geographer Giovanni Battista Ramusio read Polo's accounts in preparation for a new edition. In one of his stories, Polo told of the preparations made by the people of Sumatra with sago flour, likening them to the pastas and lasagnas he was familiar with in Italy, and described how he brought back samples to Venice. Misunderstanding this, in his 1559 publication Ramusio conveyed that Marco Polo had discovered pasta in China and brought it to Italy.{{sfn|Montanari|2021|p=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/26/27]}}

This legend persisted, and was developed further in a 1929 article in the American industry newsletter the ''Macaroni Journal'', where the author credited the invention of spaghetti to a member of Polo's crew named Spaghetti. In the story, Spaghetti made landfall in China in search of water. On shore, he encountered a farm woman stirring a batter which hardened in the hot, dry climate. Realising this would store well on long voyages, Spaghetti returned to the boat with some batter, kneaded it, formed it into long strips, and cooked it in the salty seawater.{{sfn|Serventi|Sabban|2002|p=[https://archive.org/details/pastastoryofuniv00silv/page/10/10]}}{{sfn|Montanari|2021|p=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofsp0000mont/page/28/28]}}

==Production==

Spaghetti is made from ground grain (flour) and water.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gisslen|first1=Wayne|last2=Griffin|first2=Mary Ellen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzSwCGBHr3YC&pg=PA635|title=Professional Cooking for Canadian Chefs|author3=Le Cordon Bleu|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2006|isbn=0-471-66377-8|pages=635}}</ref> Whole wheat and multigrain spaghetti are also sold.<ref name="nhg"/> Most spaghetti is produced in factories using auger extruders. As the ingredients are mixed and kneaded, attention is paid to prevent air bubbles and ensure a homogenous mix. The forming dies are water cooled to prevent overheating and spoiling the pasta. While drying the spaghetti, care is taken to prevent strands sticking together and to leave sufficient moisture to avoid a product that is too brittle. Packaging for protection and display has moved from paper wrapping to plastic bags and boxes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/ap42/ch09/final/c9s09-5.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219095025/http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/ap42/ch09/final/c9s09-5.pdf|archive-date=December 19, 2014|title=Pasta Manufacturing|publisher=Epa.gov|date=August 1995|access-date=19 December 2014}}</ref> In Naples, spaghetti is thinner than it is in the United States.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last=Schwartz|first=Arthur|title=Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania|publisher=HarperCollins|year=1998|isbn=0-06-018261-X|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/naplesattablecoo0000schw/page/132/132]}}</ref> ''Spaghettoni'' is a thicker spaghetti, and spaghettini is a thinner spaghetti, although it is thicker than the pasta of Naples.<ref>{{cite web|title=BBC Radio 4 - Radio 4 in Four - Ten tantalising facts about spaghetti|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/27bYSfFTYVJvv5ZWXYgNfT8/ten-tantalising-facts-about-spaghetti|access-date=10 December 2025|publisher=BBC}}</ref>

<gallery class="center" mode="nolines" widths="180" heights="180"> File:Pasta Sheeter built by Consolidated Macaroni Machine Corporation (circa 1935) 001.jpg|Pasta sheeter {{circa}} 1935 File:Hydraulic Spaghetti Press with Automatic Spreader built by Consolidated Macaroni Machine Corporation 001.jpg|A hydraulic press with an automatic spreader by the Consolidated Macaroni Machine Corporation, Brooklyn, New York. This machine was the first to spread long cut alimentary paste products onto a drying stick. File:Industrial spaghetti dryer built by Consolidated Macaroni Machine Corporation 01.jpg|An industrial dryer for spaghetti or other long goods pasta products, also by the Consolidated Macaroni Machine Corporation File:Spaghetti measure macro.jpg|A "spaghetti measure" that can portion out 1, 2, 3 or 4 servings with circles of different diameters </gallery>

==Nutrition==

{{Infobox nutritional value | name = Spaghetti (enriched, dry) | serving_size = {{cvt|70|g|oz|frac=4}} | kJ = 460 | carbs = 22g | sugars = 0g | fiber = 1g | fat = 0.5g | satfat = 0g | transfat = 0g | protein = 4g | vitA_ug = 0 | vitC_mg = 0 | calcium_mg = 0 | iron_mg = 4 | sodium_mg = 0 | note = Source: USDA<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/HHFSSPAGHETTI100426oct2012.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140704134451/http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/HHFSSPAGHETTI100426oct2012.pdf|archive-date=July 4, 2014|title=Spaghetti, Enriched, Dry|publisher=United States Department of Agriculture|date=October 2012|access-date=16 December 2014}}</ref> }}

Pasta provides carbohydrates, along with some protein, iron, dietary fiber, potassium, and B vitamins.<ref name="Ridgwell">{{cite book|last=Ridgwell|first=Jenny|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5mDHzVbOAVIC&pg=PA94|title=Examining Food and Nutrition|publisher=Heinemann|year=1996|page=94|isbn=0-435-42058-5}}</ref> Pasta prepared with whole wheat grain provides more dietary fiber<ref name="Ridgwell"/> than that prepared with degermed flour.

==Preparation==

Fresh or dried spaghetti is cooked in a large pot of salted, boiling water and then drained in a colander (Italian: ''scolapasta''). Utensils used in its preparation include the spaghetti scoop and spaghetti tongs.

In Italy, spaghetti is generally cooked al dente ({{literally|to the tooth}}), meaning it is fully cooked but still firm to the bite; however, it may also be cooked to a softer consistency. ''Spaghettoni'' takes more time to cook than regular spaghetti, whereas spaghettini takes less time. In southern Italy, spaghetti is sometimes placed in a dishcloth and broken into pieces to be served with vegetables, legumes or in a broth. This practice originated at a time when the region was very poor, and broken pieces of spaghetti were sold at a discount to prevent waste. Offcuts are still sold in parts of Italy, both alone and as part of {{lang|it|pasta mista}} (an assortment of pasta shapes). Some factories donate their broken pieces to hospitals and nursing homes.<ref>{{cite book|last=Schwartz|first=Arthur|title=The Southern Italian Table|publisher=Clarkson Potter|year=2009|isbn=978-0-307-38134-7|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/southernitaliant0000schw_u7z9/page/80/81]}}</ref>

<gallery class="center" mode="nolines" widths="200" heights="160"> File:Spaghetti2.jpg|Dry industrial spaghetti File:Spaghetti-cooking.jpg|Spaghetti being placed in boiling water File:Spaghetti draining.jpg|Draining the water File:Spaghettiheber-02.jpg|A spaghetti scoop File:Spaghettizaang.jpg|Spaghetti tongs </gallery>

==Serving==

{{Main|List of pasta dishes}}

An emblem of Italian cuisine, spaghetti is frequently served with tomato sauce, which may contain various herbs (especially oregano and basil), olive oil, meat or vegetables. Other spaghetti preparations include amatriciana or carbonara. Grated hard cheeses, such as ''pecorino romano'', Parmesan, and Grana Padano, are often sprinkled on top.<ref>{{cite news|title=Spaghetti|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/spaghetti|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20260211023958/https://www.britannica.com/topic/spaghetti|archive-date=11 February 2026|access-date=14 March 2026|work=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>

In the Philippines, a popular variant is the Filipino spaghetti, which is distinctively sweet with the tomato sauce sweetened with banana ketchup or sugar. It typically uses a large amount of ''giniling'' (ground meat), sliced hot dogs, and cheese. The dish dates back to the period between the 1940s to the 1960s. During the American Commonwealth Period, a shortage of tomato supplies in World War II forced the development of the banana ketchup.<ref name="halpern">{{cite news|last1=Halpern|first1=Sue|last2=McKibben|first2=Bill|title=Filipino Cuisine Was Asian Fusion Before "Asian Fusion" Existed|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/filipino-cuisine-asian-fusion-180954947/|access-date=16 December 2018|work=Smithsonian Magazine|date=May 2015}}</ref><ref name="juancarlo">{{cite web|title=The Origin of the Filipino Style Spaghetti|url=https://juancarlo.ph/blog/origin-filipino-style-spaghetti/|website=Juan Carlo|access-date=16 December 2018|date=15 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="pepper">{{cite news|last=Estrella|first=Serna|title=The Origins of Sweet Spaghetti: A Closer Look at the Filipino Sweet Tooth|url=http://www.pepper.ph/history-sweet-spaghetti/|access-date=16 December 2018|work=Pepper.ph|date=30 July 2014}}</ref> Spaghetti was introduced by the Americans and was tweaked to suit the local Filipino predilection for sweet dishes.<ref name="aia">{{cite web|title=How to make Sweet Filipino Spaghetti with Meat Sauce|url=https://www.asianinamericamag.com/2012/10/filipino-spaghetti-with-meat-sauce-how-to-eat-sweet-spaghetti/|website=Asian in America|access-date=16 December 2018|date=23 October 2012}}</ref>

<gallery class="center" mode="nolines" heights="180" widths="180" caption="Spaghetti dishes"> File:Espaguetis carbonara.jpg|''Spaghetti alla carbonara'' File:Spaghetti alle vongole.jpg|''Spaghetti alle vongole'' File:Spaghetti di Gragnano e colatura di alici.jpg|''Spaghetti aglio e olio'' File:Pasta Puttanesca (cropped).jpg|''Spaghetti alla puttanesca'' File:Spaghettiallanerano.jpg|''Spaghetti alla Nerano'' File:Spaghetti bolognese (hozinja) (cropped).jpg|Spaghetti bolognese, common outside of Italy </gallery>

==In popular culture==

[[File:Alberto Sordi - scena degli spaghetti - Un americano a Roma (1954).jpg|thumb|Alberto Sordi in the 1954 film ''An American in Rome'']]

In a humorous scene in the 1931 silent film ''City Lights'', Charlie Chaplin tries to eat an extremely long spaghetti in a restaurant.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cafe interior : Charlie eats spaghetti|url=https://www.charliechaplinarchive.org/en/collection/cerca/cafe-interior-charlie-eats-spaghetti-25487|website=Charlie Chaplin Archive|access-date=4 March 2026|date=21 January 1931}}</ref> A sequence in the 1955 animated film ''Lady and the Tramp'' features the title characters sharing a plate of spaghetti, culminating in an accidental kiss as they meet, eating the same strand of spaghetti. It is considered an iconic scene in American film history.<ref>{{cite web|last=Dirks|first=Tim|title=100 Most Iconic Film Images, Moments, or Scenes|url=https://www.filmsite.org/iconicfilmscenes.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150718035200/https://www.filmsite.org/iconicfilmscenes.html|archive-date=July 18, 2015|access-date=December 25, 2017|work=filmsite|publisher=AMC}}</ref> The BBC television program ''Panorama'' featured a hoax program about the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland on April Fools' Day in 1957.<ref>{{cite news|date=1 April 2005|title=1957: BBC fools the nation|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm|work=On This Day|publisher=BBC}}</ref>

Poorly structured computer source code is often described as ''spaghetti code''.<ref name="Markus4">{{cite journal|last1=Markus|first1=Pizka|title=Straightening spaghetti-code with refactoring?|journal=Software Engineering Research and Practice|date=2004|pages=846–852|url=http://itestra.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/04_itestra_straightening_spaghetti_code_with_refactoring.pdf|access-date=5 March 2018|archive-date=5 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180305202716/http://itestra.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/04_itestra_straightening_spaghetti_code_with_refactoring.pdf}}</ref> A similar and more physical concept, "cable spaghetti", applies to poor cable management. In women's clothing, very thin straps supporting a dress or topwear are called "spaghetti straps".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spaghetti%20strap|title=Definition of spaghetti strap|publisher=Merriam-Webster|access-date=June 28, 2019}}</ref> The term ''spaghetti Western'' refers to Western films made in Europe which were produced and directed by Italians.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Introduction|first1=Simon|last1=Gelten|last2=Lindberg|date=10 November 2015|title=Introduction|website=Spaghetti Western Database|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630005758/https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Introduction|archive-date=30 June 2017|url-status=live|access-date=2 May 2021}}</ref>

==See also==

* List of pasta

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==Sources==

{{refbegin}} * {{cite book|last=Montanari|first=Massimo|authorlink=Massimo Montanari|title=Italian Identity in the Kitchen, or Food and the Nation|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-231-53508-3|edition=English|location=Chichester, West Sussex|translator-last=Brombert|translator-first=Beth Archer}} * {{cite book|last=Montanari|first=Massimo|authorlink=Massimo Montanari|title=A Short History of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce|publisher=Europa Editions|year=2021|isbn=978-1-78770-328-5|location=London|translator-last=Conti|translator-first=Gregory|orig-year=2019 (in Italian)}} * {{cite book|last=Root|first=Waverley|author-link=Waverley Root|title=The Cooking of Italy|publisher=Time-Life Books|year=1968}} * {{cite book|last1=Serventi|first1=Silvano|url=https://lccn.loc.gov/2002073840|title=Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food|last2=Sabban|first2=Françoise|author-link2=:fr:Françoise Sabban|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-231-12442-3|location=New York|translator-last=Shugaar|translator-first=Antony|orig-year=2000 (in Italian)}} {{refend}}

==External links==

* {{Commons category-inline}} * {{Wiktionary-inline}} * {{Wikibooks-inline}}

{{Pasta}} {{Authority control}}

Category:Spaghetti Category:Types of pasta Category:Pasta Category:Italian cuisine Category:Italian words and phrases