Spaghetti

Used in 4 recipes on RecipeWiki.

Spaghetti is long, round, solid dried pasta made from durum wheat semolina and water, and this page also covers tonnarelli, the thicker, square-edged fresh egg pasta that some Roman cooks prefer for Cacio e Pepe. Spaghetti extruded through bronze dies has a rough, matt surface that grips sauce better than glossy pasta. Its starch is part of the sauce in Roman dishes: in Spaghetti Carbonara and Cacio e Pepe, reserved cooking water emulsifies cheese and fat into a cream. Boil it in plenty of well-salted water and drain it a minute before the packet time, since it finishes cooking in the pan.

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Recipes with spaghetti

Cacio e Pepe — shot from directly overhead: spaghetti in a sauce of nothing but pecorino

Cacio e Pepe

Spaghetti in a sauce of nothing but pecorino, black pepper and starchy pasta water, emulsified off the heat so it stays smooth.

30 minutesCheeseDinner

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio — shot from directly overhead: garlic sliced thin and taken slowly to pale gold in olive oil

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

Garlic sliced thin and taken slowly to pale gold in olive oil, emulsified with pasta water into a sauce that is nothing but those two things.

15 minutesDinnerItalian

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca — shot from directly overhead: a store-cupboard sauce of anchovies

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

A store-cupboard sauce of anchovies, olives, capers and chilli melted into tomato, salty enough that it needs no cheese and barely any salt.

ItalianMain coursesPasta

Spaghetti Carbonara — shot from directly overhead, the table surface filling the frame

Spaghetti Carbonara

Guanciale, egg yolk and pecorino brought together off the heat into a glossy sauce, with no cream anywhere near the pan.

30 minutesCheeseItalian