14th-century depiction of pasta making Spaghetti has its origin in an ancient, thin, and generally unleavened bread from the Middle East. This was known under various names at different times, including Asian Bread in some texts of antiquity, and lakhsha in the Persian Sasanian Empire. The bread was flattened, sometimes by hand and at other times with a rolling pin, and was occasionally dried for preservation. Under the Sasanian Empire, it took on the name rishta when cut into strips or strings before drying, the term possibly deriving from the Iranian word risnatu, for which records of use exist as far back as the 2nd millennium BC.[4]
Coinciding with this emerging tradition of drying pasta in Persia, pasta was eaten throughout antiquity in Roman and Greek societies after arriving from the Middle East.[4][5] There too, pasta was sometimes dried, most frequently the long, stretched doughs.[6] In the 7th century, Arabs conquered Persia, and thereafter spread the dried pasta custom throughout the lands they occupied, which included Sicily from the 9th century. There, the dried pasta practice became associated with the European traditions of making fresh pasta, and the name itriyya entered the language, meaning "long-form dried pasta".[7]
Arrival in the Italian peninsula By the middle of the 12th century, records exist of several farms in Sicily producing itriyya at scale for local and export markets.[8] Over the following centuries, this pasta appeared in Italian cookbooks, albeit infrequently.[9] A precise description of the manufacture of "Sicilian macaroni" is given by Martino da Como in the later 15th century: a ball of dough, stretched thin, cut with a wire as "thin as spagho (string)", dried under the sun.[10] The duration of this drying process varied with weather and humidity, but twelve days in the summer was typical.[11] In another recipe for a Genoese pasta, Martino employs spagho for the first time in a culinary context when he says pasta ought to be cut "as thin as a spagho".[10] Several tools were employed for this cutting process, including chitarra in areas of southern Italy, which consisted of a wooden frame strung with wires, lowered onto the dough.[12]
Pasta at this time was cooked for much longer than it is today; Martino recommends his Sicilian macaroni boil in water for two hours to achieve a desired, very soft texture. Contemporary ideas of how this pasta should be served was based on the ideas of physicians, who followed Hippocrates and Galen's principle of contraria contrariis curantur ('opposites cure opposites'). For a very soft pasta, this meant expensive accompaniments of dried spices and pepper.[13] Cheese, particularly the drier, aged varieties, was another common pairing for the same reason, the most popular for the task by the mid-15th century being pecorino and parmigiano.[14] The slippery texture and hot serving temperature of pasta facilitated the introduction of the fork to Italy, replacing earlier practices of eating pasta and other foods by hand, and by the 14th century, the first descriptions of spaghetti being twirled with a fork were emerging
Spaghetti (Italian: [spaˈɡetti]) is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta.[1] It is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine. Like other pastas, spaghetti is made of milled wheat (sometimes enriched with vitamins and minerals) and water. Italian spaghetti is typically made from durum-wheat semolina.[2] The pasta is usually white because refined flour is used, but whole wheat flour may be added.[3] Spaghettoni is a thicker form of spaghetti, while spaghettini is a thinner form. Capellini is a very thin spaghetti, while vermicelli refers to intermediate thicknesses.
Originally, spaghetti was notably long, but shorter lengths gained in popularity during the second half of the 20th century and now it is most commonly available in 25–30 cm (10–12 in) lengths. A variety of pasta dishes are based on it and it is frequently served with tomato sauce, meat or vegetables.