Spaghetti (Italian:[spaˈɡetti]) is a long, thin, solid, cylindricalpasta.[1] It is astaple food of traditionalItalian cuisine. Like other pastas, spaghetti is made ofmilledwheat (sometimesenriched with vitamins and minerals) andwater. Italian spaghetti is typically made fromdurum-wheatsemolina.[2] The pasta is usually white because refined flour is used, but whole wheat flour may be added.[3]Spaghettoni is a thicker form of spaghetti, while spaghettini is a thinner form.Capellini is a very thin spaghetti, whilevermicelli refers to intermediate thicknesses.
Originally, spaghetti was notably long, but shorter lengths gained in popularity during the second half of the 20th century and now it is most commonly available in 25–30 cm (10–12 in) lengths. A variety of pasta dishes are based on it and it is frequently served withtomato sauce, meat or vegetables.
Spaghetti has its origin in an ancient, thin, and generally unleavened bread from theMiddle East. This was known under various names at different times, including Asian Bread in some texts of antiquity, andlakhsha in the PersianSasanian Empire. The bread was flattened, sometimes by hand and at other times with a rolling pin, and was occasionally dried for preservation. Under the Sasanian Empire, it took on the namerishta when cut into strips or strings before drying, the term possibly deriving from the Iranian wordrisnatu, for which records of use exist as far back as the 2ndmillenniumBC.[4]
Coinciding with this emerging tradition of drying pasta in Persia, pasta was eaten throughoutantiquity in Roman and Greek societies after arriving from the Middle East.[4][5] There too, pasta was sometimes dried, most frequently the long, stretcheddoughs.[6] In the 7th century,Arabs conquered Persia, and thereafter spread the dried pasta custom throughout the lands they occupied, which includedSicily from the 9thcentury. There, the dried pasta practice became associated with the European traditions of making fresh pasta, and the nameitriyya entered the language, meaning "long-form dried pasta".[7]
By the middle of the 12th century, records exist of several farms in Sicily producingitriyya at scale for local and export markets.[8] Over the following centuries, this pasta appeared in Italian cookbooks, albeit infrequently.[9] A precise description of the manufacture of "Sicilian macaroni" is given byMartino da Como in the later 15th century: a ball of dough, stretched thin, cut with a wire as "thin asspagho (string)", dried under the sun.[10] The duration of this drying process varied with weather and humidity, but twelve days in the summer was typical.[11] In another recipe for aGenoese pasta, Martino employsspagho for the first time in a culinary context when he says pasta ought to be cut "as thin as aspagho".[10] Several tools were employed for this cutting process, includingchitarra in areas of southern Italy, which consisted of a wooden frame strung with wires, lowered onto the dough.[12]
Pasta at this time was cooked for much longer than it is today; Martino recommends his Sicilian macaroni boil in water for two hours to achieve a desired, very soft texture. Contemporary ideas of how this pasta should be served was based on the ideas of physicians, who followedHippocrates andGalen's principle ofcontraria contrariis curantur ('opposites cure opposites'). For a very soft pasta, this meant expensive accompaniments of dried spices and pepper.[13] Cheese, particularly the drier, aged varieties, was another common pairing for the same reason, the most popular for the task by the mid-15th century beingpecorino andparmigiano.[14] The slippery texture and hot serving temperature of pasta facilitated the introduction of thefork to Italy, replacing earlier practices of eating pasta and other foods by hand, and by the 14th century, the first descriptions of spaghetti being twirled with a fork were emerging.[15]
19th century photograph of Neapolitans eating spaghetti in the street (photo byGiorgio Sommer)
In the 17th century, the region associated most with pasta moved from Sicily to Naples. Around 1630, Naples under Spanish rule was experiencing famines with a reduced supply of meat and vegetables due to poor governance. As technology permitting industrial mixing and extrusion dramatically reduced prices of output, pasta became astaple food, no longer the domain of the elite.[16][17] It is in this century that short cooktimes and firmer pasta textures emerged, although at first only for fresh pasta; it took until the mid-19th century in Naples for records of cooks taking a short cooktime and firm texture for granted.[18]
Around this time, pairing tomato sauces with pastas was becoming established among the Naples populace, the first records of the combination having appeared at the end of the previous century.[19]Grated cheese remained an essential element in preparations, although unlike in modern servings, sauces were served over grated cheese. It was not until the 20th century that the inverse became established.[20]
By the 1920s food writerWaverley Root could witness scenes in Naples of "home-made macaroni hung out to dry like the family washing—at the mercy of dust, dirt, insects and the depredations of passing pigeons, children and dogs".[21] By 1955, annual consumption of spaghetti in Italy doubled from 14 kg (31 lb) per person before World War II to 28 kg (62 lb).[22] In that year, Italy produced almost 1.5 million tons of spaghetti, of which approximately 5% wasexported.[22]
Through the end of the 13th century, the Venetian merchant and adventurerMarco Polo travelled into Asia, detailing his expedition inThe Travels of Marco Polo. Two centuries later, the geographerGiovanni Battista Ramusio read Polo's accounts in preparation for a new edition. In one of his stories, Polo told of the preparations made by the people of Sumatra withsago flour, likening them to the pastas and lasagnas he was familiar with in Italy, and described how he brought back samples to Venice. Misunderstanding this, in his 1559 publication Ramusio conveyed that Marco Polo had discovered pasta inChina and brought it to Italy.[23]
This legend persisted, and was developed further in a 1929 article in the American industry newsletter theMacaroni Journal, where the author credited the invention of spaghetti to a member of Polo's crew named Spaghetti. In the story, Spaghetti made landfall in China in search of water. On shore, he encountered a farm woman stirring a batter which hardened in the hot, dry climate. Realising this would store well on long voyages, Spaghetti returned to the boat with some batter and kneaded it, formed it into long strips, and cooked it in the saltysea water.[24][25]
Spaghetti is made from grain ground into a flour and water.[26] Whole-wheat and multigrain spaghetti are also sold.[2] Most spaghetti is produced in factories using augerextruders. As the ingredients are mixed and kneaded, attention is paid to prevent air bubbles and ensure a homogenous mix. The forming dies are water cooled to prevent overheating and spoiling the pasta. While drying the spaghetti, care is taken to prevent strands sticking together and to leave sufficient moisture to avoid a product that is too brittle. Packaging for protection and display has moved from paper wrapping to plastic bags and boxes.[27]
InNaples, spaghetti is thinner than it is in theUnited States.[28]Spaghettoni is a thicker spaghetti and spaghettini is a thinner spaghetti, although it is thicker than the pasta of Naples.[29]
Fresh or dry spaghetti is cooked in a large pot of salted, boiling water and then drained in acolander (Italian:scolapasta).Utensils used in spaghetti preparation include the spaghetti scoop and spaghetti tongs.
In thePhilippines, a popular variant is theFilipino spaghetti, which is distinctively sweet with the tomato sauce sweetened withbanana ketchup or sugar. It typically uses a large amount ofginiling (ground meat), slicedhot dogs, and cheese. The dish dates back to the period between the 1940s to the 1960s. During theAmerican Commonwealth Period, a shortage of tomato supplies inWorld War II forced the development of the banana ketchup.[31][32][33] Spaghetti was introduced by the Americans and was tweaked to suit the local Filipino predilection for sweet dishes.[34]
A sequence in the 1955 animated movieLady and the Tramp features the title characters sharing a plate of spaghetti, culminating in an accidental kiss as they meet, eating the same strand of spaghetti. It is considered an iconic scene in American film history.[38] The BBC television programPanorama featured ahoax program about the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland onApril Fools' Day in 1957.[39]
^abSalerno, George (December 13, 1956). "Spaghetti consumption up as national dish in Italy".Wilmington Morning Star. Vol. 90, no. 52.Wilmington, North Carolina.United Press.
^"Spaghetti, Enriched, Dry"(PDF). United States Department of Agriculture. October 2012. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on July 4, 2014. RetrievedDecember 16, 2014.
^Gelten, Simon; Lindberg (November 10, 2015)."Introduction".Spaghetti Western Database.Archived from the original on June 30, 2017. RetrievedMay 2, 2021.
Montanari, Massimo (2021) [2019 (in Italian)].A Short History of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce. Translated by Conti, Gregory. London: Europa Editions.ISBN978-1-78770-328-5.
Serventi, Silvano;Sabban, Françoise[in French] (2002) [2000 (in Italian)].Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food. Translated by Shugaar, Antony. New York: Columbia University Press.ISBN978-0-231-12442-3.
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