Spaghetti is a long, thin form of pasta. It is versatile, popular, and available throughout the Western world. Spaghetti is the plural form of the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of "spago," meaning "thin string" or "twine". The word "spaghetti" can be literally translated as "little strings." A common theory is that Marco Polo brought the noodles back with him from China, but this is not true
Preparation
Most spaghetti sold and consumed is commercially prepared, then dried. Spaghetti is cooked by boiling the pasta in salted
water until soft. The consistency or texture of spaghetti changes as it is cooked. The most popular consistency is al dente which is translated from the Italian as "to the tooth"; that is soft but with texture, sometimes even with bite in the center. Others prefer their spaghetti fully cooked, which gives it a much softer consistency. The best dried spaghetti is made from durum wheat semolina. Fresh spaghetti should be prepared with grade '00' flour. Inferior spaghetti is often found produced with other kinds of flour, especially outside Italy.
An emblem of Italian cuisine, spaghetti is frequently served in tomato sauce, which may contain various herbs (especially oregano and basil), olive oil, meat, or vegetables. Other toppings include any of several hard cheeses, such as Pecorino Romano, Parmesan or Asiago. Outside Italy it is often served with meatballs, although that is not a typical Italian recipe.
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Eating
Eating spaghetti with a fork and a spoon is perfectly polite in parts of the United States, although the view on this varies both there and in most other cultures. Many other cultures eat it with just a fork like most other Continental dishes. In Asia, many people use chopsticks as a form of eating rather than forks, as chopsticks are customary in most Asian countries. Another method of eating spaghetti, which is the traditional way in Italy, is to use just a fork and twist it so that the spaghetti wraps around the fork.
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Varieties
Spaghettini (thin spaghetti) takes less time (usually two minutes less) to cook to al dente form than regular spaghetti. There is also Spaghettoni (thick spaghetti) which takes longer to cook. All three types of spaghetti are larger than the other round-rod pastas (like vermicelli).
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Spaghetti in popular culture
Spaghetti is well discussed in popular culture, and is extensively used in jokes.
