Spaghetti

Photo: flickr user kawanet

About

Most common round-rod pasta

Information

Other names: pasta

Translations: Spageti, Σπαγγέτι, Spagečiai, السباغيتي, Špagety, Spagettia, Spaghete, Špageti, Špagety, ספגטי, Спагетти, 스파게티, スパゲッティ, स्पेगेटी, Спагеті, 意大利面条, Špageti, Шпагети, Спагети

Physical Description

Spaghetti is a long, thin, cylindrical pasta of Italian origin.Spaghetti is the plural form of the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of spago, meaning "thin string" or "twine".Pasta comes in many different colors. Most pasta is cream-colored, but some is made using spinach making it green, red pasta that is made using tomato, gray pasta that is made using squid ink, and some pasta is called "cellophane" because it becomes transparent when cooked.

Colors: golden yellow, light brown

Tasting Notes

Flavors: mild, salty

Mouthfeel: Smooth, Soft

Food complements: Tomatoes, Rosemary, Pesto, Cheese, Olive oil, Garlic

Wine complements: Red wine, Cabernet savignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, White wine

Beverage complements: Beer, Sangria, Tequila, Rum, Coconut milk, Horchata, Cider

Substitutes: Penne, Linguine, Angel hair pasta, Vermicelli

Selecting and Buying

Procuring: Most pasta is made using wheat products mixed with water. Other types of pasta are made using ingredients such as rice, barley, corn, and beans.
Egg noodles contain egg; almost all other dry pasta shapes do not. By federal law, a noodle must contain 5.5 percent egg solids to be called a noodle. So without egg, a noodle really isn't a noodle.

Preparation and Use

A variety of pasta dishes are based on it, from spaghetti with cheese and pepper or garlic and oil to a spaghetti with tomato, meat, and other sauces.Spaghetti is cooked in a large pot of salted, boiling water (about 5 liters for 2 persons) which is brought to boiling. Then one or two spoons of salt are added and after a minute or so the pasta is added. After 10 to 15 minutes (the timing is most often written on the packaging of sundry brands and thicknesses) the spaghetti is drained of water with a colander (scolapasta in Italian).

Conserving and Storing

It can be stored on the shelf in an airtight container in a dry area that is not exposed to extreme temperatures. Dried pasta can be stored indefinitely and still be safe to eat but the USDA recommends storing dried pasta for no more than two years to obtain the best quality.

Social/Political

The popularity of pasta spread to the whole of Italy after the establishment of pasta factories in the 19th century, enabling the mass production of pasta for the Italian market.In the United States around the end of the 1800s, spaghetti was offered in restaurants as Spaghetti Italienne (which likely consisted of extremely soggy noodles and a tomato sauce diluted with broth) and it wasn't until decades later that it came to be prepared with garlic or peppers

History: We've probably all heard that Marco Polo brought spaghetti to Europe from the Far East in the late 13th century. While it's true that he probably encountered it there -- or at least a type of long noodle made from either rice flour or hard wheat flour -- pasta had existed in Europe for centuries. In fact, a fourth century B.C. Etruscan tomb has a bas-relief carving of a group of natives making what appears to be pasta. Pasta in Italy is a long tradition!