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Spaghetti
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." According to some, it is an uncountable
noun in English.
Uncountable nouns have no plural form.
While legend
has it that Marco
Polo brought the recipe for spaghetti back from China,
prior evidence showed that pasta has been made in Italy at
least since the 4th
century BC.
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.
Eating
According to Neapolitan
habit, eating spaghetti with a fork
and a spoon
is perfectly polite, though the view on this varies in
other cultures. Many other Italians 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
custom in most Asian countries.
In parts of the US, a narrow size of
macaroni
is sold as elbow spaghetti. This is a misnomer, as
this product is short and tubular, thus it's not a
spaghetti at all.
Spaghettini is a form of pasta that is very much like
spaghetti, except a bit thinner.
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