How Much Spaghetti Per Person?

We recommend allowing 75g of dried spaghetti per person for a main course or 120g if using fresh spaghetti. If we're serving pasta as a starter, we reduce these amounts to around 40g and 60g, respectively.

How to measure spaghetti

There's a plethora of gadgets to help you measure how much spaghetti you need per person. Some are functional, some are ugly, and some are rather beautiful. They're undoubtedly more reliable than using the flawed 'cup size' system American cooks favour, but no number of gizmos can ever compete with digital kitchen scales. Scales are the only way you'll find us measuring the weight of any ingredient.

We like serving our spaghetti al dente, so we always opt for dried pasta. Fresh pasta is excellent for some dishes, but because it has never been thoroughly dried, there's no way to replicate that toothsome al dente texture you get with the dried alternative.

Our recommended amount of dried spaghetti per person

75g is our recommended portion size for a main course of dried spaghetti. However, we've been known to increase this to 100g if feeling particularly peckish. 40g per person is about right for a starter.

Our recommended amount of fresh spaghetti per person

If your only option is to use fresh spaghetti, then 120g per person is good if you serve it as a main course. Reduce this to around 60g if serving it as a starter (which is how Italians typically enjoy pasta).

The ingeniously low-tech way to measure spaghetti without scales

If you lack anything to weigh or measure spaghetti, there's a wonderfully low-tech way to do it. Simply pinch your thumb and middle finger together and push the pasta through the hole you created. That's roughly four main course portion sizes.