Spaghetti () is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta.[ spaghetti. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. (accessed: 3 June 2008).] It is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine.[ Retrieved on 22 December 2014.] The pasta is usually white because refined flour is used, but whole wheat flour may be added.
Originally, spaghetti was notably long, but shorter lengths gained in popularity during the latter half of the 20th century and now it is most commonly available in lengths. A variety of pasta dishes are based on it and it is frequently served with tomato sauce, meat or vegetables.
Etymology
Spaghetti is the plural form of the
Italian language word
spaghetto, which is a
diminutive of
spago, meaning 'thin string' or 'twine'.
History
Origin
Pasta may have first been worked into long, thin forms in Sicily around the 12th century, as the
Tabula Rogeriana of Muhammad al-Idrisi attested, reporting some traditions about the Kingdom of Sicily.
The popularity of spaghetti spread throughout Italy after the establishment of spaghetti factories in the 19th century, enabling the mass production of spaghetti for the Italian market.
Production
Spaghetti is made from ground grain (flour) and water.
Whole-wheat and multigrain spaghetti are also available.
Fresh spaghetti
Pasta can be made at home, cutting sheets of flattened dough with a knife into ribbons,
rather than spaghetti with circular cross-section. Some pasta machines have a spaghetti attachment with circular holes that extrude spaghetti, or shaped rollers that form cylindrical noodles.
Spaghetti can be made by hand by manually rolling a ball of dough on a surface to make a long sausage shape. The ends of the sausage are pulled apart to make a long thin sausage. The ends are brought together and the loop pulled to make two long sausages. The process is repeated until the pasta is sufficiently thin. The pasta knobs at each end are cut off leaving many strands which may be hung up to dry.
Fresh spaghetti is usually cooked within hours of being formed. Commercial versions of fresh spaghetti are manufactured.
Dried spaghetti
The bulk of dried spaghetti is produced in factories using auger
Food extrusion. While essentially simple, the process requires attention to detail to ensure that the mixing and kneading of the ingredients produces a homogeneous mix, without air bubbles. The forming dies have to be water cooled to prevent spoiling of the pasta by overheating. Drying of the newly formed spaghetti has to be carefully controlled to prevent strands sticking together, and to leave it with sufficient moisture so that it is not too brittle. Packaging for protection and display has developed from paper wrapping to plastic bags and boxes.
File:Hydraulic Spaghetti Press with Automatic Spreader built by Consolidated Macaroni Machine Corporation 001.jpg|A hydraulic press with an automatic spreader by the Demaco, 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 spiral, 2008.jpg|Dried spaghetti
File:Spaghetti measure macro.jpg|Dried spaghetti measured with a "spaghetti measure". One portion of dried pasta weighs , twice the amount of one serving on the package (12 mm circle or 60 g.). The measure can portion out 1, 2, 3 or 4 servings based on the diameter of the circle.
Variations
In Naples, spaghetti is thinner than it is in the US.
is a thicker spaghetti and spahettini is a thinner spaghetti, although it is thicker than the pasta of Naples.
Preparation
Fresh or dry spaghetti is cooked in a large pot of salted, boiling water and then drained in a
colander (Italian:
scolapasta).
Kitchen utensil used in spaghetti preparation include the spaghetti scoop and spaghetti tongs.
In Italy, spaghetti is generally cooked al dente (), fully cooked but still firm to the bite. It may also be cooked to a softer consistency.
Spaghettoni takes more time to cook than regular spaghetti, and spaghettini less time.
File:Spaghetti-cooking.jpg|Spaghetti being placed into a pot of boiling water for cooking
File:Spaghetti draining.jpg|Draining the water from boiled spaghetti
File:Spaghettiheber-02.jpg|A spaghetti scoop
File:Spaghettizaang.jpg|Spaghetti tongs
Serving
Italian cuisine
An emblem of
Italian cuisine, spaghetti is frequently served with
tomato sauce, which may contain various
(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.
Below are some of the most important spaghetti dishes:
-
Spaghetti alle vongole
-
Spaghetti aglio e olio
-
Spaghetti alla puttanesca
-
Spaghetti alla Nerano
File:Spaghetti alle vongole.jpg| Spaghetti alle vongole
File:Spaghetti di Gragnano e colatura di alici.jpg| Spaghetti aglio e olio
File:Pasta Puttanesca.jpg| Spaghetti alla puttanesca
File:Spaghettiallanerano.jpg| Spaghetti alla Nerano
International cuisine
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
Picadillo (
ground meat), sliced
, 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 the Second World War forced the development of the banana ketchup.
Spaghetti was introduced by the Americans and was tweaked to suit the local Filipino predilection for sweet dishes.
Consumption
By 1955, annual consumption of spaghetti in Italy doubled from per person before World War II to .
By that year, Italy produced 1,432,990 tons of spaghetti, of which 74,000 were
, and had a production capacity of 3 million tons.
Nutrition
Pasta provides
, along with some
protein,
iron,
dietary fiber,
potassium, and
B vitamins.
Pasta prepared with
Whole grain grain provides more dietary fiber
than that prepared with degermed flour.
In popular culture
In the 1955 animated movie
Lady and the Tramp, the sequence of the title characters sharing a plate of spaghetti—climaxed by an accidental kiss as they swallow opposite ends of the same strand of spaghetti—is considered an iconic scene in American film history.
The BBC television program Panorama featured a hoax program about the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland on April Fools' Day in 1957.
Terminology
Poorly structured
computer source code is often described as
spaghetti code.
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 strap".
The term spaghetti Western was used by American critics and those in other countries because most of the Western film made in Europe were produced and directed by Italians.
See also
-
List of pasta
-
Spaghetti alla chitarra (or maccheroni alla chitarra)
Further reading
