One pound of fusilli pasta equals six cups, one pound of penne pasta equals four and a half cups, and one pound of macaroni noodles equals three cups.
I can now easily calculate how much one pound of pasta is. So, thanks Flo I love my kitchen scale.
I purchase a lot of food in bulk, particularly staples like pasta. A lot of recipes call for 1 pound of pasta. Well, it’s difficult to determine how much a pound of pasta is when you buy in bulk. The cup measurement for one pound of macaroni noodles is different from that of one pound of penne pasta, which is different from that of one pound of egg noodles.
Last year, my sister gave me a kitchen scale for my birthday. I had no idea how helpful it would be for other things, but I knew it would be helpful for some of my bread and other recipes.
The benefit of adding salt to the water is straightforward: it enhances the flavor of the pasta by seasoning it. Additionally, it’s usually a good idea to save some of the pasta cooking water to use in a sauce, if desired. Because the water contains starch from the pasta, it will also help thicken the sauce if necessary. The reserved pasta water will help season the sauce.
Measuring short pasta (bow-tie, rigatoni and elbow) is easy enough. However, half of a one-pound box of spaghetti and vermicelli equals roughly two cups. You can also do it by weight. Typically, two cups equals eight ounces of short pasta, such as macaroni.
Having said all that, what’s generally listed on the packages/boxes of most dry pasta as the serving size is 2 ounces. What does that look like? It will definitely depend on the size and shape. But generally, 2 ounces of dry pasta like penne or bow tie is about 1/2 cup. Once cooked, that amount yields 1 to 11/4 cups. Again, it depends on the size. When it comes to long strands of pasta, 2 ounces is typically 2 inches or just a smidgen more in circumference depending on the size of the noodle. That circumference yields about 1 cup of cooked pasta as listed at www.barilla.com. So a 1-pound box of dry pasta cooks up to about 8 cups.
Have a question? Contact Susan Selasky noon-3 p. m. Thursdays at 313-222-6872 or e-mail sselasky@freepress. com. Follow her @SusanMariecooks on Twitter.
Another question that comes up often when cooking pasta is whether the water should be salted or not. The answer is a resounding yes. How much salt to use? I always think of Mario Batali, who says you should add enough salt so the water tastes salty. At http://www.mariobatali.com, it’s recommended that for every 1 pound dry pasta you should use 6 quarts water and 3 tablespoons kosher salt, adding the salt to the water once it comes to a full boil.
