Guide Note

Spaghetti is a long thin form of pasta that is very popular both in Italy and the United States. It is thicker than cappellini, but thinner than perciatelli. It is usually around 2 millimeters in diameter.

Fast Facts

1. Most popular texture is al dente
2. Dried product made from durum wheat semolina
3. Proper method of consumption: Twirling around fork
4. Origin: 12th century Sicily

For many years it has been said that Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy from China. However, Italian food writing did not make a distinction between dried pasta and other forms such as gnocchi until the past few centuries. An Arabic book from the 1100s writes of spaghetti-like pasta being manufactured in Sicily, based on an Arabic recipe - but food writer John Dickie claims the Arabic word used, Ittriyya, comes from a Greek word that may have meant the same thing. One thing seems conclusive: Marco Polo is not the father of spaghetti.

On April Fools' Day 1957, the BBC broadcast a video showing the Swiss spaghetti harvest. People were shown picking spaghetti noodles from trees, and the pernicious "spaghetti weevil" was mentioned. Many people later called the network to ask how they could grow their own spaghetti trees, not realizing the clip was an April Fool's joke.

Spaghetti Squash is not related to spaghetti. It is a winter squash that has stringy flesh, similar in appearance to spaghetti.

Spaghetti Westerns are Western films made in Europe from about 1960 to 1975. Most of these films were funded by Italian companies. Since at the time spaghetti was considered the quintessential Italian food, "Spaghetti Westerns" became the name of the genre.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of the parody religion "Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster". Followers call themselves "pastafarians". The deity is known for touching both followers and unbelievers with "his noodly appendage". The religion was invented as an argument against intelligent design theory.