Italian Spaghetti Recipes

Spaghetti is a classic Italian pasta with a long, string-like shape, and it forms the basis of various pasta dishes. The neutral flavour profile and its versatility means you can toss it with whatever sauce, vegetables or meat you have on hand for a quick dinner.

Some tips for cooking Italian spaghetti include:

Add salt to the water: While you can cook spaghetti without salt, adding it improves the flavour of the spaghetti. As the pasta cooks, it absorbs the salted water and seasons it. Adding salt also raises the boiling temperature of water, resulting in spaghetti that cooks faster.

Use plenty of water and stir the pasta: Add plenty of water to the saucepan to prevent the pasta from sticking together. If your spaghetti is tightly packed as it cooks, it’s more likely to clump together and won’t cook evenly.

Using plenty of water also keeps the temperature stable while adding the pasta. You can also ensure the pasta doesn’t stick together by stirring it every couple of minutes.

Italian spaghetti is a blank canvas, making it ideal for pairing with sauces, vegetables, cheeses and proteins. For instance, you can enrich the taste of your spaghetti with a simple tomato-based sauce with bacon, shrimp or spinach. Alternatively, use peas, asparagus and pancetta to make spaghetti carbonara.

If you want a creamy comfort dish, pair up your spaghetti with pesto, freshly grated Parmesan and dollops of ricotta. A little crunch can also improve the texture, especially if you add pumpkin seeds, crushed pistachios or roasted walnuts.

A quick and easy spaghetti with marinara sauce is a comforting weeknight meal that comes together in 20 minutes. All you need to do is heat the tomatoes and toss cooked spaghetti in it before adding pepper and Parmesan cheese.