Like so many Americans, who collectively eat 5.95 billion pounds of pasta a year, I love spaghetti. |
Spaghetti is the No. 1 best-selling shape in the U.S., according to industry-giant pasta makers, followed by penne (not my favorite tube) and angel hair (too thin, I say). |
It’s also one budget-friendly noodle (or about 500 noodles per 1-pound package). The national average price is $1.34 for a pound, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data, though brands such as Martelli and Rustichella d’Abruzzo can cost upwards of $5 to $10. |
Despite threats of a 107% tariff on imported pasta during the Great Spaghetti War that climaxed earlier this year, dried pasta prices in general have remained relatively stable. Duties for imported pasta were minimal because the U.S.’ public display of protectionism prompted too much cultural backlash (and just enough political backchanneling). |
In other words, don’t mess with spaghetti. |
Even in the face of rising gocery store prices and inflation forecasts exceeding 4% this year, supermarkets often keep private-label dried spaghetti below $1.50 for budget shoppers. You could make dinner for four for less than $10. |
If you prefer imported or artisan spaghetti that is extruded with bronze dies (rather than the industrial Teflon-lined machines) for optimal texture and sauce adhesion and slowly dried for best flavor, the tally at the cash register might look significantly different, especially with increasing wheat, energy and fuel prices. But some brands or distributors could absorb those costs to remain competitive. |
The beauty of dried pasta is it’s shelf stable, so I stock up. |
Recently I came across a Y2K-era food zine (Xerox’d and hand-stapled) to which I once contributed a brief recipe: butter-ume-shiso spaghetti. |
So I re-tried the recipe, inspired by a dish from chef Masayuki Ishikawa, who opened (and closed) Sawtelle Kitchen in L.A. and now works in Kyoto. The recipe noted that it was “a one-pot dish”: “Boil 8 ounces of spaghetti, al dente. Drain. In spaghetti pot, soften half a stick of butter on low heat and add two or three tablespoons of [umeboshi] pickled plum paste. Return spaghetti to the pot and stir gently until butter melts and pickled plum paste is well distributed. Slice five or six green shiso leaves in thin strips. Plate spaghetti and top with shiso and grated parmesan and red pepper flakes to taste. Serves two.” |
And you know what? It’s as delicious as I remembered, bracing with pickled plum and glistening with butter. |
Here are six favorite L.A. Times recipes for America’s most popular pasta. |
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Alba’s Date-Night Spaghetti Al Limone |
This spaghetti al limone is for lovers. Start the sauce by browning butter with crushed garlic — just until it smells like sweet hazelnuts — then add lots of lemon juice and zest and a showering of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Adam Leonti, the chef of Alba in Hollywood, calls this dish made for two “date-night spaghetti.”
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 30 minutes. Serves 2. |
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times) |
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Creamy All’Amatriciana-Ish Spaghetti |
The classic hallmarks of pasta all’Amatriciana, often associated with the cooking of Rome though it’s probably from the Lazio town Amatrice, are its creaminess (traditionally achieved by Pecorino and pasta water) and crispy bits of guanciale (cured pork jowl). This riff takes some liberties, by using a full cup of cream and either pancetta or bacon. The most famous noodle for salsa all’Amatriciana is bucatini, but in Amtrice it’s served with spaghetti.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 30 minutes. Serves 4. |
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(Danielle Campbell / For The Times/Los Angeles Times) |
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Ume-Shiso-Butter Spaghetti |
Rich-creamy butter and sour-salty-fruity pickled plum is a surprising but excellent combination in this Japanese ume-shiso spaghetti. The combo calls for a bright-fresh blast of the citrusy-minty herb shiso. Chile flakes add a pleasant kick. And you know what I would add that I didn’t include in the recipe? Grated zest of lemon or yuzu.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 20 minutes. Serves 2. |
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(Betty Hallock / Los Angeles Times) |
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Osteria Mamma’s ‘Midnight Spaghetti’ |
L.A. Times Food reporter Stephanie Breijo mined Osteria Mamma’s self-published cookbook for this recipe, known in the Cortivo and Cecchinato family as “midnight spaghetti,” which is meant to be made from readily available pantry items and fridge staples. Loredana “Mamma” Cecchinato made this for her family in Italy long before her children opened the Larchmont Italian restaurant Osteria Mamma, often using it to feed them and their friends into the early hours of morning. Breijo says it’s lightly garlicky and a textural delight thanks to fresh herbs and flecks of imported tuna — especially satisfying after a late night spent drinking or otherwise socializing.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 45 minutes. Serves 4. |
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times) |
Diep Tran’s Buttered Spaghetti With Dried Shrimp And Sake |
This pasta dish from chef Diep Tran has just six ingredients, a sauce that comes together in the time it takes to boil spaghetti, and surprising depth of flavor for such relatively little effort. It takes its inspiration from mentaiko pasta, a Japanese dish of spaghetti tossed in sake-marinated cod roe. Instead of cod roe, Tran uses dried shrimp and combines it with sake and butter before reducing it to a glossy sauce. Consider the color and size of your dried shrimp. They should be bright orange, and preferably from the refrigerated section of the market. Look for medium or large dried shrimp, especially from Kho Market and Louisiana Dried Shrimp Co., available online and at some Vietnamese delis in Little Saigon. Try a junmai sake for its clarity of flavor, but you can use any type except for cooking sake, which doesn’t quite have the complexity that would benefit this dish.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 20 minutes. Serves 4 to 6. |
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(Zoe Cranfill / Los Angeles Times) |
Spaghetti With Garlic, Chile Greens And Toasted Bread Crumbs |
Homemade super-crunchy bread crumbs — made from the last bits of a leftover loaf — are key in food writer Dawn Perry’s simple pasta dish, teeming with spicy, garlicky greens. Use kale, collard greens, Swiss chard or spinach. Perry loves short, tubular shapes for catching all those flavorful bread crumbs and cheese. But high-quality bronze-cut spaghetti will have a micro-cracked, powdery surface that creates a sandpaper-like surface for gripping oils, aromatics and grated cheese, instead of letting them slide off.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 30 minutes. Serves 4. |
Spring Pea Carbonara |
Traditional carbonara has no cream or milk but instead gets its creaminess from eggs and Parmesan blended into a silky sauce when tossed with al dente noodles. A note from former L.A. Times cooking editor Genevieve Ko: Make sure the noodles aren’t too hot before tossing or the eggs will scramble. She adds peas and salty prosciutto and uses wide pappardelle, but spaghetti works as well. You could substitute fresh, shelled peas from the farmers market here. She quotes a maxim from Fergus Henderson, the chef of the legendary St. John restaurant in London, that gives you an easy out: “A wise old chef once told me: Wait till peas are in season, then use frozen.”
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 20 minutes. Serves 2 to 4. |
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(Los Angeles Times) |
