spaghetti

Spaghetti ask for a sauce that can coat long strands without turning the plate heavy, which is why they sit at the center of so many quick pasta meals. By our assessment, that long shape is their real strength: it twirls well, carries tomato, oil, or cream sauces cleanly, and gives a familiar bite. The trade-off is that they are less forgiving than short pasta if the sauce is too chunky or the pot too small, because the strands tangle and stick together. In practice, spaghetti are plain to cook and plain to eat, but they reward a little care with timing and stirring. Against penne or fusilli, they are the straight, classic option; against fresh pasta, they are cheaper and more everyday. The Astrina catalogue marks spaghetti as en:spaghetti, which is as unsurprising as it sounds.