How Should One Eat Spaghetti?

[LizD518]

My preferred cooking vessel for 1-2 servings of pasta has long been a 3.5 qt Revereware saucepan. For spaghetti, I don't break the strands, but I do spend the first 30-seconds to a minute of cooking time coaxing the entire strand into the pot as the ends that are submerged start to soften. Then I have to stir every couple of minutes so they don't end up clumpy on the bottom. Last week I graduated to a 4qt All Clad pan, which give the pasta a little more space, but it also a lot heavier to pick up with one hand. Thankfully it has a small assist handle on the other side as well.

Edited November 7, 2013 by LizD518 (log)

[Franci]

My parents break in half their spaghetti and they don't eat al dente. They lived in Italy all their lives.

I don't break my spaghetti and none of the Italian foodie people I know. Personally, it gets more difficult to roll on the fork with a short spaghetto. If I want a short pasta, I'll eat something else...never meet anybody eating spaghetti with a spoon. Broken up spaghetti in soup is different and you eat with a spoon.

I openly admit being an Italian snob when I see foreigners eating pasta, sorry, I cannot help it.

Food is meant to be enjoyed. Silly rules like breaking pasta and not mixing cheese with fish (both Italian) are irrelevant if that's how you enjoy it. It drives me batty to hear people act like its a cardinal sin. It's not universal it's regional. Since it would be perfectly normal in Mexico for instance to mix cheese and seafood Eat drink and be happy

It's not really like that. It's customary to eat some fish with pecorino. And if you go to Venezia they will serve you risotto with fish and cheese (grana). BTW it was only in Veneto that I met some people adding cheese to spaghetti aglio e olio.

It's a matter of style and taste. No matter if you are a good cook or not for Italians some things don't mix. Same for fashion.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Franci (log)

[rotuts]

""" never meet anybody eating spaghetti with a spoon """

do you mean ' with (ie in)' the spoon, like soup? or do you mean the spoon assists the fork roll-up: the tines of the fork rest in the bowl of the spoon as one rolls, thus preventing the mass from falling off and making a mess.

thats what I saw in Italy, with the table cloths etc.

[Franci]

Really possible you saw that, never happened to me: I've never seen anybody in Italy eating spaghetti (not in soup) with fork and spoon.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Franci (log)

[rotuts]

I thought it was very cool. this was a very high end luncheon for my father. table cloths, stemware, silver.

I never masted it. I was 10. Maybe they were Italian High Episcopalians. H.E.'s would do that. My

Grandparents were H.E.'s. Dressed for Dinner, etc. Then again, H.E.'s might not eat spaghetti . It gets pretty complicated.

It seems the people who would eat like that might not eat spaghetti . sort of an oxymoron of the table.

so no one knows if anyone eats spaghetti fork and spoon ?

Edited November 7, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[Martin Fisher]

I haven't seen anyone in America eating spaghetti with a fork and spoon.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Sauces & Shapes has a whole section on the technique of eating pasta.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/145860-sauces-shapes-pasta-the-italian-way-by-oretta-zanini-de-vita-and-maureen-b-fant/

[rotuts]

I looked it up in my copy. thanks

guess i was hallucinating. could it have been spaghetti in soup?

[Anna N]

I thought it was very cool. this was a very high end luncheon for my father. table cloths, stemware, silver.

I never masted it. I was 10. Maybe they were Italian High Episcopalians. H.E.'s would do that. My

Grandparents were H.E.'s. Dressed for Dinner, etc. Then again, H.E.'s might not eat spaghetti . It gets pretty complicated.

It seems the people who would eat like that might not eat spaghetti . sort of an oxymoron of the table.

so no one knows if anyone eats spaghetti fork and spoon ?

I remember a time, in the 70s perhaps, when it was de rigueur to eat spaghetti with fork and spoon. Why? No idea.

[judiu]

I remember in the mid 1950's when I was learning to use silverware other than just a spoon, my mom told me that REAL Italian people used a fork ONLY, to eat spaghetti! (I was big on being like "real" whatever people were being discussed.) So I learned how. Never did master chop sticks, though...!

[gfweb]

Our local Italian place always supplies a spoon with the spaghetti. Haven't seen anyone using it.

[annabelle]

I've only ever seen WASPs in old movies eat spaghetti with a fork and spoon.

It smacks of stereo-typing to me.

[Meredith380]

I eat spagetti with a spoon and fork. So does my Italian mother and my now deceased, Italian born Grandfather. I find it neater.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Meredith380 (log)

[Ashen]

I like eating it like this. http://i1021.photobucket.com/albums/af332/QuirkyCookery/2009%20-%2008/103_0110.jpg The hotdog makes it easier to fork and twirl.

[nickrey]

I'm perplexed by breaking spaghetti to get it into a pot. If you add it to boiling water it rapidly becomes bendable and you can fit it easily into whatever shaped pot you have.

On cheese with fish, the only rationale that I have is if you use umami-rich parmesan, the taste could swamp the taste of fish. Otherwise, I suspect it is a leftover from the church-driven food rules introduced during periods of austerity.

[liuzhou]

I'm perplexed by breaking spaghetti to get it into a pot.

Me too. If my food doesn't fit into the pot. I change the pot - not the food.

[Paul Bacino]

My grandmother called all pasta...macaroni.

She never broke the long macaroni we always separated the meat from the macaroni, in sugo.

I prefer bowls she used plates

Now a days. I use rotini..and. A spoon.

Cheers

Paully "Bacino"----"the liitle kiss"