Spaghetti

[misstig]

I was wondering, is it true that "real" Italians will never break spaghetti in half when putting it in the pot to boil? If so, why not?

Also, do Italians use a spoon when eating spaghetti? That is, you take a forkful and then twirl it against a spoon? I didn't think to pay attention to what people were doing when in Italy. People in America say that is the way "real" Italians do it, but, it's so much easier to just twirl it on the plate.

Sorry for the silly stereotype questions!

Grazie,
Nora

[marcom]

Dear Nora,
It is very rare to break spaghetti in half when cooking them.
Although sometimes, when cooking for small children, they are broken in 4 to 5 cm long pieces in order to make them easier to eat.

About the spoon...
I personally can't use it well, and I have rarely seen people of my generation use it.
The older generation, people now in their 50s, tend do use it, but not all of them.

Ciao
Marco

[se80]

I agree with marcom.

I've never seen any young Italians use the spoon. One of my grandfather's used to do that, but that was a loooong time ago! Come to think of it, he's the only grown-up who I've seen doing such thing.

As for the reason why we don't break spaghetti in half, I'm not quite sure actually. I guess breaking them would sort of defeat the purpose of cooking and eating such unique kind of pasta. And besides, if you do break them, wouldn't be harder to twirl them around the fork? BUT there are exceptions when breaking spaghetti is acceptable: for kids or, say, you have only a few string of leftover uncooked spaghetti and you happen not to have any other kind of pasta to throw into a soup? Then it is acceptable, imho. My family does that all the time cos we tend not to buy or make small kinds of pasta, the kind that usually go into soup.

In conclusion, if you want to cook a honest-to-God regular spaghetti dish? Forget breaking them! Hope that helps