Spaghetti () is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an Leavening agent, unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or Eggs as food, eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was originally on ...

.spaghetti
Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. (accessed: 3 June 2008). It is a

staple food A staple food, food staple, or simply staple, is a food that is eaten often and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for an individual or a population group, supplying a large fraction of energy needs an ...

of traditional

Italian cuisine Italian cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine#CITEREFDavid1988, David 1988, Introduction, pp. 101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes, and cooking techniques developed in Italy since Ancient Roman cuisine, Roman times, and later spread ...

. Like other pasta, spaghetti is made of milled

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

, water, and sometimes enriched with vitamins and minerals. Italian spaghetti is typically made from durum-wheat semolina. Retrieved on 22 December 2014. Usually the pasta is white because refined flour is used, but whole wheat flour may be added. ''Spaghettoni'' is a thicker form of spaghetti, while spaghettini is a thinner form. Capellini is a very thin spaghetti, while vermicelli refers to intermediate thicknesses. 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 Tomato sauce (; ; ) can refer to many different sauces made primarily from tomatoes. In some countries the term refers to a sauce to be served as part of a dish, in others it is a condiment. Tomatoes have a rich flavor, high water content, s ...

, meat or vegetables.

Etymology

''Spaghetti'' is the plural form of the Italian word ''spaghetto'', which is a

diminutive A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...

of ''spago'', meaning 'thin string' or 'twine'.

History

Origin

Some historians think that Arabs introduced pasta to Europe during a conquest of

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. In the West, it 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 Kingdom of Sicily (; ; ) was a state that existed in Sicily and the southern Italian peninsula, Italian Peninsula as well as, for a time, in Kingdom of Africa, Northern Africa, from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was ...

. 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.

Ingredients

Spaghetti is made from ground grain (flour) and water. Whole-wheat and multigrain spaghetti are also available.

Production

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 extruders. 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 Consolidated Macaroni Machine Corporation, 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. File:Breguil del siglo XIX (Asturias, Spain).jpg, A bread machine called in Spanish bregadora, sobadora or breguil was to bregar or sobar (to 'knead strongly') the dough, similar to a pasta machine. In this way, the famous "Pan español", "Pan bregado", "Pan candeal" or "Pan sobado" was achieved, a bread that is characterized by a very dense crumb. File:I. DeFrancisci & Son Preparatory Dough Mixer for macaroni.jpg, Preparatory Dough Mixer for macaroni.

Preparation

Fresh or dry spaghetti is cooked in a large pot of salted, boiling water and then drained in a colander (Italian: ''scolapasta''). 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'' is a thicker spaghetti which takes more time to cook. Spaghettini is a thinner form which takes less time to cook. Capellini is a very thin form of spaghetti which cooks very quickly. Utensils used in spaghetti preparation include the spaghetti scoop and spaghetti tongs. 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

, spaghetti is frequently served with

, which may contain various herbs (especially oregano and basil),

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

, meat or vegetables. Other spaghetti preparations include amatriciana or carbonara. Grated hard cheeses, such as '' pecorino romano'',

Parmesan Parmesan (, ) is an Italian cuisine, Italian Types of cheese#Hard cheese, hard, Types of cheese#Granular, granular cheese produced from Dairy cattle, cow's milk and aged at least 12 months. It is a Grana (cheese), grana-type cheese, along wit ...

, 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 '' giniling'' ( ground meat), sliced hot dogs, 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 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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. ''Sapaketti phat khi mao'' (spaghetti fried drunken noodle style) is a popular dish in Thai cuisine. Spaghetti is a main part of '' laksa Johor'', a specialty from

Johor Johor, also spelled Johore,'' is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It borders with Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the north. Johor has maritime borders with Singapore ...

, Malaysia.

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

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...

ed, and had a production capacity of 3 million tons.

Nutrition

Pasta provides

carbohydrate A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' ...

s, along with some

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

dietary fiber Dietary fiber (fibre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or roughage is the portion of plant-derived food that cannot be completely broken down by human digestive enzymes. Dietary fibers are diverse in chemical co ...

potassium Potassium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol K (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number19. It is a silvery white metal that is soft enough to easily cut with a knife. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to ...

, and B vitamins. Pasta prepared with whole wheat grain provides more dietary fiber than that prepared with degermed flour.

In popular culture

Poorly structured

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

is often described as '' spaghetti code''. In women's clothing, very thin straps supporting a dress or topwear are called " spaghetti straps". The term ''

spaghetti Western The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

'' was used by American critics and those in other countries because most of the Western movies made in Europe were produced and directed by

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

. 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 April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. ...

in 1957.