Learn how to make spaghetti with some basic tips and recipes that everyone will love!
How to Make Spaghetti
Spaghetti is a staple of most American families. It’s our go to when we aren’t quite sure what to make because we know that everyone in our family loves it. But there are tons of different ways to prepare it. I’m going to give you the run down of the basics and then add a few variations for how to make spaghetti that you can try with your family!
- Pick your spaghetti noodles: lots to choose from here! We don’t necessarily have a brand that we stick to, we usually get whatever is on sale at the grocery store.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
You can add salt to the water and/or oil. Josh swears by adding olive oil because the noodles don’t stick to each other. The one down side to this is that the pasta sauce doesn’t stick well after.
Tip: We lay a wooden spoon over the top of the pot. It prevents the water from flowing over the pot while it’s cooking. - Add the spaghetti to the boiling water, reduce the heat.
Make sure to stir over the duration of cooking. Even if you use oil, you will need to stir every once in awhile. - Test to make sure it’s done.
I’m sure you’ve heard the old trick of throwing the noodles at the wall. If they stick, they are done. My kids think it’s fun to do this. But I doubt you’ll see any chefs throw their pasta at the wall. Most people prefer spaghetti that is “al dente.” If you let it cook for too long it will be soggy and sticky. - Drain with a colander.
I love this set of colanders. People say not to rinse with water (though Josh likes to do that to get the oil off) because it removes the layer of starch on the top of the noodles.
Also important to note: it’s best to serve noodles immediately because it continues to cook.
Serving guidelines: Most spaghetti packages come in 8 oz or 16 oz. 8 oz works out to be approximately 4 cups of cooked spaghetti.
Note: Spaghetti will stay good for up to a year as long as it’s stored properly. After we had an incident with moths (yuck!!), I now swear by OXO pop top containers.
Now this is where the hard part comes in – what to do with the spaghetti noodles!! You can make spaghetti and meatballs, baked spaghetti, spaghetti pie, casseroles and more.
These are some of our favorites ways to eat spaghetti:
- Baked Spaghetti
- Spaghetti Pie
- Turkey Tetrazzini (Chicken Spaghetti)
A few other ideas to try:
- Spaghetti Boats from I Heart Naptime
- Instant Pot Spaghetti from Skip To My Lou
And if you want to make your own spaghetti sauce, go for it!! But we also love Rao’s marinara sauce. I found it years ago when I was trying Whole 30.
Here are my favorite kitchen tools that I have on hand to use for all of the spaghetti recipes:
- Big ol’ pot
- Colander set
- My all time favorite oven mitts
- Wooden spoons/spurtles — I use my set of spurtles for everything!
- Air tight container to store spaghetti noodles
