measureing spaghetti

[+ friendofsheila]

I want to measure out the same spaghetti each time, but I don't want to spend more money to buy one of those things with holes in it. 

Does anyone have a work around way?  

[mike carey]

10 hours ago, friendofsheila said:

I want to measure out the same spaghetti each time, but I don't want to spend more money to buy one of those things with holes in it. 

Does anyone have a work around way?  

I make a circle with my thumb and index finger and measure it that way. Generally about 15mm (a bit over half an inch) diameter is one serving, but it was trial and error at first, and it's still not precise, but I can live with that. If there's too much cooked spaghetti when I do that , I put it into a plastic tub and put it in the fridge or freezer, then either microwave it or reheat it by putting it into boiling water on the stove-top then brining the water back to the boil (no more heating than that).

There's a bonus to that: when cooled after cooking, carbs (potato, rice, pasta) convert to resistant starch that we digest more slowly, and they convert further when reheated,

With long pasta (I usually use linguine rather than spaghetti) I usually cook about two servings at a time (about 20-25mm) and store [about] half of it, either in a sauce or 'naked' (clearly the boiling water method of reheating doesn't work if there's sauce).

[jeezifonly]

Kitchen scales are most reliable. Any shape of pasta can be weighed. For two servings my “eyeball” measurement is half of any standard pkg and once opened, the other half is enclosed in a ziplock. 

[+ friendofsheila]

On 8/2/2025 at 11:32 PM, mike carey said:

I make a circle with my thumb and index finger and measure it that way.

Thank you.

[samhexum]

On 8/2/2025 at 4:02 PM, friendofsheila said:

I want to measure out the same spaghetti each time

 

On 8/3/2025 at 2:32 AM, mike carey said:

With long pasta (I usually use linguine rather than spaghetti) I usually cook about two servings at a time (about 20-25mm) and store [about] half of it, either in a sauce or 'naked' (clearly the boiling water method of reheating doesn't work if there's sauce).

 

On 8/3/2025 at 2:51 AM, jeezifonly said:

Kitchen scales are most reliable. Any shape of pasta can be weighed. For two servings my “eyeball” measurement is half of any standard pkg and once opened, the other half is enclosed in a ziplock. 

 

Because many of us have been boiling pasta since we learned how to cook—maybe even thanks to good ‘ole boxed Kraft Macaroni and Cheese—we might think we’re pros. However, on a recent trip to Academia Barilla, Barilla’s culinary school in Parma, Italy, I learned that there’s more of an art to making pasta than you may have thought.

Chef Marcello Zaccaria shared many tips for making restaurant-quality pasta at home, from using julienned vegetables in dishes with long pasta and cubed veggies in dishes with short pasta to the notion that we should be tasting our pasta water to ensure it’s salted to perfection.

However, there’s one mistake you might be making that could throw off your entire pasta recipe—and it’s a mistake made at the start of cooking.

According to Marcello, your pasta-to-sauce ratio can really make or break the dish.

So, there are two ratios you should live by. When you’re cooking a pasta dish with marinara, Alfredo, vodka, or any other sauce that’s not pesto, you’ll want to use an even 100 grams of dry pasta to 100 grams of sauce.

If you have one, use a food scale to get a precise measurement, but if you don’t, 100 grams of dry pasta is about 1 cup and 100 grams of pasta sauce is about 1/2 cup.

For pasta dishes made with pesto, you’ll use the same 100 grams of dry pasta, but only 50 grams of pesto—or 1/4 cup.

To make the perfect bowl of pasta, you’ll cook your desired noodles in salted water—without breaking the pasta—according to package instructions. However, Marcello recommends pulling the pasta off the heat about one to two minutes before the package suggests for al dente pasta. That way, you can finish the pasta in the sauce on the stove unless you’re making a pesto dish.

Pesto should never be heated on the stove, according to Chef Marcello, instead, cook the pasta all the way until al dente, drain it, and then add it to a separate heat-safe bowl with your pesto. Marcelllo recommends covering the bowl with plastic wrap or something else to seal it in, then shaking the bowl to ensure the pesto coats every noodle.

It’s a simple trick, but it will take your pasta dish from an at-home meal to one that transports you to the streets of Italy.