What can I make with spaghetti?
Spaghetti is the weeknight default for good reason, and the gap between fine and excellent comes down to two things: salted water and finishing in the sauce. Recipes using spaghetti are below.
10 recipes with spaghetti
Spaghetti Carbonara
Roman pasta with eggs, pecorino, and crispy guanciale.
Italian20m2
Classic Spaghetti Carbonara
Silky Roman pasta with eggs, pecorino, and crispy guanciale.
Italian25m4
Pilchard puttanesca
Cook the pasta following pack instructions.
Italian4
Seafood fideuà
Boil the kettle.
Spanish4
Spaghetti with Spanish flavours
step 1 Put a pan of water on over a high heat to boil.
Spanish4
Spaghetti alla Carbonara
STEP 1 Put a large saucepan of water on to boil.
Italian4
Squash linguine
Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
Italian4
Spaghetti Bolognese
Put the onion and oil in a large pan and fry over a fairly high heat for 3-4 mins.
Italian4
Mediterranean Pasta Salad
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil Add the pasta, stir once and cook for about 10 minutes or as directed on the packet.
Italian4
Syrian Spaghetti
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Syrian4
Restaurant-quality spaghetti at home
- 1Salt the water until it tastes like a seasoned soup; this is the only chance to season the spaghetti itself.
- 2Cook 1-2 minutes short of the box time and reserve a mug of the starchy water before draining.
- 3Finish the spaghetti in the sauce over heat, adding the reserved water a splash at a time until the sauce clings.
- 4Add cheese off the heat so it emulsifies instead of turning stringy.
What goes well with spaghetti
Spaghetti is at its best with garlic, olive oil, parmesan, tomato, basil and chili flakes. Any two or three of those, plus spaghetti, is already a dinner rather than an ingredient list.
Storing spaghetti
Dry spaghetti keeps for months in a sealed container away from light and heat. Once cooked, cool it quickly, refrigerate within two hours, and use within 3-4 days; cooked grains and legumes freeze extremely well in single-portion bags.
Substituting spaghetti
If you are out of spaghetti, look for something that behaves the same way in the pan rather than something that tastes the same. Match the moisture level, the cooking time, and the richness, and adjust the liquid slightly if your substitute releases more water. When in doubt, describe what you actually have in the chat and Mr. Chef will rewrite the recipe around it.
Spaghetti recipes: common questions
- What can I make with spaghetti and not much else?
- Plenty. With spaghetti plus an onion, garlic, oil, and salt you already have the base of a skillet dinner, a soup, or a simple sauce. Add a starch - rice, pasta, bread, or potatoes - and it becomes a full meal. The recipes above are ordered so the ones needing the fewest extra items come first.
- What is the quickest spaghetti recipe?
- Look for the entries above marked 20 minutes or less. As a rule, anything cut small and cooked in a hot pan beats anything roasted whole, and one-pan recipes save more time in cleanup than in cooking.
- Can I substitute spaghetti?
- In most recipes yes, as long as the replacement plays a similar role - similar moisture, similar cooking time, similar richness. Swapping across roles (a watery vegetable for a starchy one, for instance) usually needs a change in liquid or cooking time too.
- How do I use up leftover spaghetti?
- Fried rice, a frittata, a grain bowl, a soup, or a quesadilla will absorb almost any leftover spaghetti without a recipe. If you want something specific, tell Mr. Chef exactly what is in the fridge and it will build a recipe around it.