Spaghetti

spah-GET-tee

Long strands Campania

Round solid strand, about 2 mm across.

Cut end, to scale.
1.9 mm across

Name. From spago, Italian for twine or string, with the diminutive -etto. Little strings.

How to cook spaghetti: 9 to 12 minutes, with a timer

What it is

Spaghetti is the shape the world means when it says pasta. It is a round solid strand about two millimetres thick, cut to a standard 25 or 26 centimetre length, and it was industrialised in Naples and Gragnano in the nineteenth century where the sea air dried it on racks in the street.

Thickness is the only variable that matters. Spaghettini is thinner and cooks faster, spaghettoni is thicker and chewier. The classic is somewhere between 1.8 and 2.0 millimetres, and a bronze die leaves it with a matte, floury surface that grips sauce.

How to cook spaghetti

9 to 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Al dente at 10 minutes, fully cooked at 12.

Custom, minutes

10:00

Start when the water returns to the boil.

Water and salt

People

Pasta, dry: 400 g
Water: 4 L
Salt: 40 g

100 g per person as a main. A litre and 10 g of salt per 100 g. Adjust with the portion calculator.

The steps

Bring 4 L of water to a full boil in a tall pot. Add 40 g of salt when it boils.
Add the spaghetti. Stir for the first minute so nothing sticks. Start the timer when the water returns to the boil.
Bite a piece at 9 minutes. A hairline of white at the centre is al dente.
Scoop out a cup of the cooking water. Drain, or lift the pasta straight into the pan.
Toss with the sauce over the heat for a minute. Add cooking water a splash at a time until it clings.

Read more: what al dente means and why the pasta water matters. Times for every shape are on the cook page.

How it holds sauce

A strand has no cavity and no ridges, so a sauce must coat it. Thin, slippery sauces win: oil and garlic, clams, a smooth tomato, a pecorino emulsion. A chunky ragu slides off and pools in the bowl. Rome dresses spaghetti with carbonara and cacio e pepe. Naples gives it clams and tomato.

Pairs with: Aglio e olio · Pomodoro · Marinara · Vongole · Carbonara · Cacio e pepe · Puttanesca

Classic plates: Spaghetti aglio e olio, Spaghetti alle vongole, Spaghetti al pomodoro, Spaghetti alla carbonara, Spaghetti alla puttanesca.

By brand: numbers, cook times, spec sheets

6 brands, 28 product pages. Cook times run from 7 to 13 minutes across brands, so read the box, not a rule. A blank cell is a figure the brand does not state.

Brand	Product	No.	Cook	Length	Width or Ø	Notes
De Cecco	Spaghetti no. 12	12	12 min, al dente 10
Rummo	Spaghetti	3	9 min	260 mm	1.9 mm
Rummo	Spaghettigluten-free	3	10 min	250 mm	1.85 mm
Rummo	Spaghettiwhole wheat	3	9 min	260 mm	1.9 mm
Rummo	Spaghettiorganic	3	10 min	260 mm	1.9 mm
Garofalo	Spaghetti	9	10 min			Gragnano PGI · 454 g box
Garofalo	Gluten Free Spaghettigluten-free		11 min
Garofalo	Spaghettihigh protein		10 min
Mancini	Spaghetti		9 min, al dente 7	260 mm	2.2 mm
Mancini	Spaghetti		11 min, al dente 9	260 mm	2.2 mm	dried 36 h at 36 to 46 °C
Mancini	Spaghettituranicum wheat		9 min, al dente 7	260 mm	2.2 mm
Mancini	Spaghettituranicum wheat		9 min, al dente 7	260 mm	2.2 mm
Mancini	Spaghettiwhole wheat		9 min, al dente 7	260 mm	2.2 mm	dried 40 h at 36 to 46 °C
Barilla	Fideo Cut Spaghetti		7 min, al dente 6
Barilla	Spaghetti		10 min, al dente 9
Barilla	Spaghetti Rigati		7 min, al dente 6
Barilla	Spaghettial bronzo		13 min, al dente 11
Barilla	Spaghettigluten-free		11 min, al dente 10
Barilla	Spaghettilegume		10 min, al dente 8
Barilla	Spaghettilegume		10 min, al dente 8
Barilla	Spaghettiprotein		9 min, al dente 7
Barilla	Spaghettiwhole wheat		8 min, al dente 7
La Molisana	Spaghetti	15	11 min
La Molisana	Spaghetti Al Nero di Seppia		11 min
La Molisana	Spaghetti Integraliwhole wheat	15	10 min
La Molisana	Spaghetti Biologiciorganic	15	10 min
La Molisana	Spaghetti Con Lupinilegume		7 min
La Molisana	Spaghetti Gluten Freegluten-free		10 min

Nutrition

Per 100 g of dry semolina pasta. The shape does not change these numbers. The dough does, so a whole wheat or egg version of this shape reads differently. See every dough.

Per 100 g	Energy	Protein	Carbohydrate	Fibre	Fat	Sodium	Iron
Dry	371 kcal	13.0 g	74.7 g	3.2 g	1.5 g	6 mg	3.3 mg
Cooked	158 kcal	5.8 g	30.9 g	1.8 g	0.9 g	1 mg	1.3 mg

One portion. 100 g dry becomes about 235 g cooked, 371 kcal and 13 g of protein. Pasta takes on 2.3 times its weight in the pot.

Who makes spaghetti

2719 spaghetti products are catalogued, most of them sold in France, United States, Germany. Of those, 201 are gluten-free, 584 are organic, 194 are made in Italy.

Brands: Barilla (100), Panzani (50), Combino (45), Auchan (36), Coop (27), Carrefour (26), De Cecco (25), Lidl (24), La Molisana (23), Boni (16).

No spaghetti? Use these

Ranked by how they behave with sauce, not how they look. Full substitute list.

Linguine

Long strands · Liguria

Same length and weight, a flat section that coats the same way

Spaghettini

Long strands · Campania

The same strand, thinner and two minutes faster

Bucatini

Long strands · Lazio

The same strand with a bore, for a sauce with more body

Side by side

Easy to confuse with

Spaghettini

Long strands · Campania

round solid strand, about 1.5 mm across

Spaghettoni

Long strands · Campania

round solid strand, over 2 mm across

Vermicelli

Long strands · Campania

round solid strand, thickness varies by country

Bucatini

Long strands · Lazio

thick round strand with a fine bore through the centre

Linguine

Long strands · Liguria

flattened oval strand, wider than thick

Other names

Fide/fidi, fidelini, filatelli, ristoranti, spaghetti n. 12, spaghetti n. 5, vermicelloni, vermicelloni giganti.

Bronze die versus Teflon: why the surface of dried pasta matters
What a bronze die does to the surface of pasta, why a rough shape holds sauce better, and how to tell a bronze-cut box from a Teflon one on the shelf.

Sources

Spaghetti no. 12, De Cecco (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti, Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (gluten-free), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (whole wheat), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (organic), Rummo (cook time, catalogue number, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti, Garofalo (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Gluten Free Spaghetti (gluten-free), Garofalo (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (high protein), Garofalo (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti, Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (turanicum wheat), Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (turanicum wheat), Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (whole wheat), Mancini (cook time, spec sheet dimensions, from the brand's own product page)
Fideo Cut Spaghetti, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti Rigati, Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (al bronzo), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (gluten-free), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (legume), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (legume), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (protein), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti (whole wheat), Barilla (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti, La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti Al Nero di Seppia, La Molisana (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti Integrali (whole wheat), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti Biologici (organic), La Molisana (cook time, catalogue number, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti Con Lupini (legume), La Molisana (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Spaghetti Gluten Free (gluten-free), La Molisana (cook time, from the brand's own product page)
Cook time: De Cecco no. 12: 12 min, al dente 10.
Photograph: Spaghetti2.jpg, Popo le Chien, CC0.
Open Food Facts (products, brands, labels), Open Database License, read on 2026-08-25.
USDA FoodData Central (nutrition per 100 g, by dough: FDC 169736, Pasta, dry, enriched; FDC 169737, Pasta, cooked, enriched, without added salt), public domain. The cooked yield is derived from the two energy figures.
Spaghetti, Wikipedia (names, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Dimensions: brand spec sheets and measured boxes. Blank fields are unmeasured, never guessed.