For a 2 oz, 200 calorie serving of spaghetti, how much should I put in the water, dry, when you grab it and look down at the ends all bunched together?
Dime size? Penny size?
I found a website that said a cup would be the size of a quarter but that's half of a 14 oz box so that's absolutely not correct.
An FDA serving of cooked pasta is 1 cup. So, if you don't have a scale, you can measure post-cooking. There are probably slight differences in the weight of a cup of pasta, depending on the shape -- e.g., I'd guess a cup of shells weighs less than a cup of orzo, because of the air space in the shells -- but I wouldn't sweat it.
Incidentally, a typical "serving" of pasta in an Italian restaurant is 3.5 cups. That's about 770 calories with essentially nil nutritional value.
I'd really recommend getting a food scale.......it's been a lifesaver for me and I've used it so often!! They have some decent ones at Target that won't set you back too much. Usually I weigh the dry pasta before cooking it.
I've even been using my scale when measuring out portions. For example, if I'm serving 4, then I weigh all the pasta together, divide by 4 and weigh each portion instead of just eyeballing it. Also, I love weighing higher fat things like nuts and cheeses, to make sure I'm not overdoing it.
I do indeed have a scale, but I'm lazy! I did weigh out 2 oz on the scale, dry, and then the cooked serving looked HUGE. I wonder, the box said 2 oz was 200 calories, but do you think they meant cooked or dry? It doesn't specify. It was whole wheat spaghetti.
They mean 2 oz. dry on every pasta I've seen. Funny perception - I always think the cooked portion looks small in comparison to my pasta servings in the past. Maybe I need to use a smaller bowl. It looking huge to you is a plus!
Pasta serving size
