How To Get The Perfect Portion Of Spaghetti Every Time
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Did someone say spaghetti night? We sure did! When you think of a home-cooked meal, floods of different plated images may grace your mind. One thing that most people have in common when it comes to home-cooked food though is spaghetti. Nothing quite beats that one family member's homemade pasta sauce that slow cooks all day, making it worth the wait when it's finally dished out for an evening meal with the family.
According to Food Business News, the United States holds down the top spot with the largest pasta market, amounting to 2.7 million tons of pasta consumed every year. This isn't to say though that Italy is outshined here. Italy's citizens still eat the most pasta out of any other global citizen, averaging a consumption of just under 52 pounds per person each year.
Whether you're cooking up a spaghetti recipe that reminds you of your childhood or a simple marinara, you always want to make sure you measure out your portions accordingly. This is crucial, as cooking times vary depending on how much pasta you're boiling. If you find yourself either cooking not enough or even too much pasta, there's a simple trick to make sure you get the perfect portion of spaghetti every time.
Use the hole in your spaghetti spoon
The days of making too much pasta for yourself leaving you with a surplus of cooked noodles are over. There's actually a pretty amazing life hack you can use here you can measure out a perfect single portion of spaghetti every time you decide to cook the dish for yourself. According to CountryLiving, using the hole in your spaghetti spoon will result in cooking up a single portion of noodles every time.
While we all thought that hole in the middle of the spoon was only meant for water drainage, it actually holds a bigger purpose. Want to know how it works? Simply take some dry and uncooked spaghetti noodles and place them through the center hole of the spoon. You'll find that it perfectly measures a recommended single serving of pasta, so you won't cook more than what you can eat (via Hella Property).
If this newfound knowledge of spaghetti spoons holding more than just drainage functions blew your mind, then keep reading.
The hidden measuring tool
If you think it's nifty that your spaghetti spoon can measure out a single serving of noodles for you, then you'll be happy to hear that there are companies that take it to the next level. After a quick search, it looks like there are spaghetti spoons that hold more than just a single measurement serving on the spoon. FENGCHEN makes a helpful 3-in-1 large spaghetti measuring spoon, allowing you to measure varying portions of spaghetti noodles for a single serving or up to four people (via Amazon).
Same with the Vacu Vin pasta spoon. Along with holding a single serving measuring hole in the middle, it also features a timer tool on the handle, allowing you to measure out your single serving and set the timer for your noodles (via Innovative Kitchenware).
It's important to note though that the measuring holes are really meant for spaghetti noodles only. If you try this with another type of pasta — say penne or rotini — they'll just fall through the measuring holes.
Now that you can perfectly measure your spaghetti, you should know how to cook it perfectly every time, too.