Simple Spaghetti Recipe
Italy · Servings: 4

Italian-American cuisine
Ingredients
- 2.25 L (10 cups) water
- 8 oz (224 g) spaghetti
- 2.5 cups (24 oz) pasta sauce (optional but recommended)
- Salt (optional but recommended)
- Vegetable oil (optional but recommended)
Procedure
- On a stovetop, bring the water to a boil on high heat after adding salt and vegetable oil (see tips below).
- Reduce heat to medium and add the pasta.
- While the spaghetti is cooking, pour desired amount of sauce into pan and set stove to medium.
- Set a timer for 7 minutes. When the timer goes off, fish out a strand of spaghetti and bite into it. What you're going for here is al dente, meaning that the pasta is just soft enough to eat: no longer crunchy in the middle, and not mushy and over-done. A more traditional (but messy) way to see if the spaghetti is done is to throw some strands onto a wall. If they stick to the wall, then the pasta is ready to eat.
- When the sauce begins to bubble, reduce the heat to its lowest setting and cover.
- Once the pasta is ready, carefully drain it through a colander into a sink.
- Serve sauce over pasta in bowls.
Adapted from Wikibooks Cookbook · Cookbook:Simple Spaghetti, CC BY-SA 3.0.