Pasta question

JennJ323

Tonight we are making spaghetti. I know it's 2oz of dried pasta per serving size, but when I throw it all in one pot to cook there's no way for me to recall what that 2oz portion of noodles was. I suppose I could always cook my 2oz in a separate pot.. which is kind of annoying. Does anyone know the weight for cooked spaghetti noodles.. or even if it's approximate "1C cooked = approximately 2oz dry" I'm in maintenance mode so I have some wiggle room and it doesn't have to be exact. But this has always troubled me. It's easy if I'm cooking for just myself, but when it's for the family it makes the serving size more difficult to figure out.

Thanks!

L1zardQueen

Cook it once separately, weigh it when it is done.

JennJ323

Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »

Cook it once separately, weigh it when it is done.

I have done that with other pasta noodles.. I should just do that with the spaghetti tonight so I know for the future. Thanks

Crafty_camper123

This is how I did it when I made a one pot pasta meal. I added & weighed all ingredients in the recipe builder including my water. I estimated my water evaporation visually and divided my water total in half in the recipe builder. I then totaled all ingredients together and got my final total in grams for the whole dish. That was my number of "servings" so I would just dish it up and weigh out my serving. I do realize I could have weighed my pot initially, made a note and then weighed the whole dish when it was done. But, that was my maiden voyage in cooking and weighing. I'm piggy backing on this in case someone has a more effective idea because I was wondering the same thing when I made that dish. Lol.

lightenup2016

You can also weigh the whole pot of drained noodles, subtract the weight of the pot alone, and calculate calories per gram that way. I think there might be a little variation depending on how long you cook it (and therefore how much water is absorbed by the pasta), but I haven't figured out a better way yet.

For other large cuts of pasta, like penne and rigatoni (my family's fave), I've weighed out a serving of dried noodles, and then counted how many individual pieces were in that serving. Then I just count them out onto my plate to know about how much I'm eating. Not perfect, but close enough. I can't really count out spaghetti noodles very easily, though

Francl27

Weigh all the pasta raw. Divide by 56g to calculate how many servings it is. Cook. Weigh it cooked, divide by the number of servings, and that's one serving cooked. It typically comes to 120-130g cooked, so I just use 120g now.

JennJ323

lightenup2016 wrote: »

You can also weigh the whole pot of drained noodles, subtract the weight of the pot alone, and calculate calories per gram that way. I think there might be a little variation depending on how long you cook it (and therefore how much water is absorbed by the pasta), but I haven't figured out a better way yet.

For other large cuts of pasta, like penne and rigatoni (my family's fave), I've weighed out a serving of dried noodles, and then counted how many individual pieces were in that serving. Then I just count them out onto my plate to know about how much I'm eating. Not perfect, but close enough. I can't really count out spaghetti noodles very easily, though

That's what I've done with the penne noodles we make.. I know approx 50 noodles is the 2oz dry. But yeah with spaghetti it would be tough!

lemurcat12

Francl27 wrote: »

Weigh all the pasta raw. Divide by 56g to calculate how many servings it is. Cook. Weigh it cooked, divide by the number of servings, and that's one serving cooked. It typically comes to 120-130g cooked, so I just use 120g now.

This is what I do. Writing it out makes it sound like more work than it is.

amgreenwell

If you have the spaghetti spoon that has the hole in the middle...that is supposed to be the serving size. I have no idea if that's 2 oz but try it and see

aeloine

Francl27 wrote: »

Weigh all the pasta raw. Divide by 56g to calculate how many servings it is. Cook. Weigh it cooked, divide by the number of servings, and that's one serving cooked. It typically comes to 120-130g cooked, so I just use 120g now.

I third this. Weigh all dry, weigh all cooked. If 1/4 of your dry pasta was 2 oz, then 1/4 of your cooked pasta will be your serving.

French_Peasant

Personally I just eyeball it (after quickly weighing out the initial dry noodles).

If I HAD to know down to the last gram, I would probably just segregate my potion in a cheesecloth bag or small metal colander or some such. NOTE: this is easier with penne than spaghetti.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I have always used a cup measure for a serving of cooked pasta. It's pretty crude, but it definitely keeps you from eating too much.

JennJ323

Update: I weighed out 2oz dry, cooked it separate from the rest of the pasta and weighed it cooked. It came out to 4.5oz. A nice easy number to remember for the future. Thanks for the suggestions.