🍝 Spaghetti

Spaghetti is a long, thin pasta with a round cross-section and one of the best-known shapes of Italian dry pasta. The word is the plural of spaghetto, a diminutive of spago, «string», and De Cecco notes that spaghetto appears in the Italian dictionary of Tommaseo and Bellini from 1819, together with a «spaghetti soup». ¹

What the law says. Under Italian law (DPR 187/2001), «pasta di semola di grano duro» is made by extruding or rolling and then drying a dough of durum wheat semolina and water only. Soft wheat flour may not be used for dry pasta, and only up to 3% is tolerated as an accidental presence. ²

Quality in numbers. Dry semolina pasta sold in Italy may contain at most 12.5% moisture, and per 100 parts of dry matter it needs at least 10.5 parts of protein and no more than 0.90 parts of ash, with acidity capped at 4 degrees. Wholemeal durum wheat pasta must have 1.40–1.80 parts of ash and at least 11.5 parts of protein. ²

Other kinds. Pasta with added ingredients, such as spinach, is sold as «special pasta» under the semolina name plus the ingredient, and egg pasta needs at least four whole eggs, or 200 g of egg, per kilogram of semolina. These Italian rules cover pasta for the Italian market; pasta made for other EU countries or for export may follow different requirements. ²

How it is made. De Cecco says it has milled its own wheat since 1831, mixes the dough with cold water below 15 °C, draws it through rough dies that leave a porous surface to hold sauce, and dries it slowly at low temperature. ¹ Barilla has made semolina pasta since 1877. ³

On the plate. According to Barilla, 100 g of its dry Spaghetti N°5 give 359 kcal, 71.2 g of carbohydrate including 3.5 g of sugars, 12.5 g of protein, 2.0 g of fat and 3.0 g of fibre, with only 0.013 g of salt. ³

Glycaemic index and weight. International tables give white spaghetti a glycaemic index of 49 and wholemeal spaghetti 48, against 75 for white bread, 73 for boiled white rice and 78 for boiled potatoes. ⁴ A meta-analysis of 32 trial comparisons with 2,448 people found that pasta eaten as part of low-GI diets did not raise weight and even lowered it by 0.63 kg compared with higher-GI diets, although no trial tested pasta alone. ⁵

Cooking. De Cecco gives 12 minutes for its Spaghetti n° 12, or 10 for al dente, while Barilla gives 10 minutes for its N°5, with about 1 litre of water and 7 g of salt for each 100 g of pasta. ¹ Barilla also suggests passive cooking: switch off the heat after 2 minutes, cover the pot and wait for the stated time, which it says cuts CO₂e emissions by up to 80%. ³

Why it matters to you. On a pack from Italy, «pasta di semola di grano duro» guarantees semolina and water only, and the cooking time is printed by each maker, so follow it rather than a general rule. ²¹ WHO advises adults to eat less than 5 g of salt a day, so salt the water lightly and taste the sauce before adding more. ⁶