Danny Palumbo
Justine Sterling
There are those who will shun spaghetti. Dan Pashman, host of The Sporkful podcast (no relation) and creator of the pasta shape cascatelli, famously said that he hates it. But read these next words slowly and through gritted teeth: Spaghetti is beautiful. It absorbs whatever sauce you decide to cook it in like a deliciously edible sponge. Spaghetti hugs sauce like an old friend, saying, “Get in here, pal.” Spaghetti is used in three of the four classic Roman pasta dishes.
Is that not good enough, Dan? Do you need more?
Fine: Spaghetti is also the quintessential pasta to serve with meatballs. The twirl of a forkful (or sporkful, if that’s easier for you to relate to) of spaghetti is so iconic that it’s literally art. It’s the pasta of the everyman. Plus, children love it. Watching a child messily eat handfuls of spaghetti and sauce is a classic and heartwarming sight. Do you hate children, Dan Pashman? No, spaghetti doesn’t suck. Spaghetti is like good pop music. Lots of people love it for good reason.
Anyway, maybe Dan just hasn’t had the right spaghetti. Maybe Dan hasn’t sat down to a head-to-head taste test of all the top spaghetti brands in search of the very best spaghetti available at the grocery store. That’s okay, because we did just that. So we can tell Dan—and any other curious pasta eaters—which spaghetti to buy.
How we taste tested spaghetti:
We cooked each brand of spaghetti noodle according to the package instructions—boiling the noodles until they were (hopefully) al dente. We tossed the noodles in a little bit of olive oil to stop them from clumping up. And then we dug in, trying each spaghetti brand on its own and dipped into marinara sauce (Specially Selected Premium from Aldi, one of our favorite jarred pasta sauces) in order to assess how well the noodles held sauce.
What we looked for in the best spaghetti:
- Thick noodles. If the noodle is thin, the package better say “thin spaghetti.” But if it says “spaghetti,” we want a thick, tubular noodle.
- Texture. Spaghetti shouldn’t be too slick. Slick noodles don’t grab sauce. Spaghetti should have some texture. That typically means we’re looking for spaghetti that has been bronze die cut. What does “bronze die cut” mean? Well, basically, a die is the mold shape through which the pasta dough is extruded at the factory. Those molds, or dies, are typically made of Teflon or bronze. Teflon produces a slicker, less desirable texture (Teflon is also cheaper), whereas bronze produces a rougher, more desirable texture, which helps noodles hold onto sauce.
- Flavor. While it shouldn’t be overpowering, the best spaghetti does actually taste like something.
It’s been a couple of years since our first spaghetti taste test, so we recently sat down to a full feast of all the top spaghetti brands—and a few more obscure brands—in order to reassess them. There were a few shake ups! Here’s our newly updated ranking of the best spaghetti noodles to buy.
Best Spaghetti Brands, Ranked
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- Reggano Spaghetti
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The best thing Reggano has going for it is value. It’s very, very cheap. I mean, for two pounds of pasta it cost us $2.09. That’s insane. If you need to feed a lot of people on the cheap (maybe you are the cook at a firehouse or have a dozen children or one growing teenage boy), or you need to feed yourself several times over the course of a week (and don’t mind eating lots and lots of spaghetti), then I’d go with Reggano. It won’t be best for anything too fancy, but it will get the job done just fine. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Instacart
- Pastificio G. Di Martino
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At around $5 for a pound, this brand could be classified as a splurge. But this PGI certified, extremely Italian spaghetti is seriously good—especially if you really want to taste the semolina. It’s bronze-die cut (which gives it good, slightly rough texture for maximum sauce hold) and slow dried at low temps (which supposedly helps make the pasta more digestible and more flavorful). It’s real pasta nerd stuff. Along with that rich, wheaty flavor, it also has a natural butteriness that we all really like. Because it’s so flavorful on its own, I’d say this is some of the best spaghetti to use in something that highlights the noodles, like a cacio e pepe or a simple dish of buttered spaghetti with fresh spring vegetables. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- La Molisana Bronze Die Spaghetti Quadrato Chitarra No. 1
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This spaghetti knocked me on my ass. La Molisana, an Italian company, makes incredible pasta that looks and tastes like it was dried at home by nonna. The texture is coarse and rough, so sauce clings to it with ease. Like Pastificio, this spaghetti was also cut with a bronze die, producing a rough spaghetti with character. Quadrato means square in Italian, and this spaghetti is square—almost like a square bucatini without the hole. And the chew, my god, the chew of La Molisana is incredible. That’s probably because it’s made with finely milled semolina flour, which has a higher protein content and produces a more pleasant texture. Honestly, with pasta this good at the store, you can skip trying to make the fresh stuff at home. This spaghetti is ideal for elite pasta dishes like carbonara, cacio e pepe, and aglio e olio, but will also do great with some red sauce and meatballs, too. If you really want to experience spaghetti, this is the best spaghetti brand to buy. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Amazon
- Garofalo Spaghetti
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Garofolo (aka the pasta brand you can buy by the case at Costco) makes really good spaghetti. It has a slightly rough surface, but it also has a springy texture and a toothsome bite. That makes me think of spaghetti and meatballs. With spaghetti and meatballs, you want some texture for the sauce to cling to, but you also want something chewy to complement the bulky meatballs. Garofalo absorbs sauce well, which is absolutely necessary because there’s nothing worse than red sauce that just slips and slides off of a noodle. If you shop at Costco, this is the best spaghetti to buy (it also might be the only spaghetti to buy, but you can feel good about buying it). — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Amazon
- De Cecco Spaghetti No. 12
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Spaghetti No. 12 sounds like a cologne used by my Uncle Mike, but it’s really great pasta from a great company. De Cecco just knows what they’re doing. They combine high quality durum wheat semolina, which they grind themselves, with mountain spring water to make most of their pasta. They use the aforementioned bronze die, and they also slow dry their pasta. That means their spaghetti has tenacity, texture, and a delightful chew. There’s no strong semolina flavor, but that’s just fine with us. Salt the water well, and this pasta will never, ever steer you wrong. De Cecco is the perfect spaghetti for spaghetti and meatballs, and it’ll work well for the fancier Roman dishes (like cacio e pepe), too. De Cecco is my brand of choice. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Amazon
- Rao’s Bronze Die Cut Spaghetti
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Rao’s makes good pasta sauce and (surprise!) they also make good pasta. Rao’s bronze die cut spaghetti is the perfect thickness for spaghetti—not too thick, not too thin. Just right. And the long strands of pasta are delightfully chewy. There’s a subtle semolina flavor here, too, with some nutty and sweet undertones. It starts out rich and wheaty, but ends clean, so it won’t try and steal the show from a sauce. The big selling point, though, is the texture. There’s a noticeable, ridged quality to each noodle. That means that the spaghetti will cling to the sauce better. It’s all about that cling, baby. Rao’s just doesn’t miss. And before you call us coastal elites, Rao’s spaghetti really isn’t that much more expensive than Barilla or De Cecco. You can get a pound for under $3 here in Los Angeles. A pound of basic Barilla spaghetti costs $2. Go ahead and treat yourself and pay the extra 90 cents. As the best brand of spaghetti we tried, it’s worth it. — Danny Palumbo & Justine Sterling
Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Amazon
Best Extreme Budget
Best Splurge
Best Thick Spaghetti
Best Spaghetti at Costco
Best Italian-American
Best of the Best Spaghetti
Other spaghetti brands we tried:
Good & Gather Bronze Cut Spaghetti, Bionaturae, Barilla al Bronzo, Rummo, De Lallo, Rustichella D’Abruzzo, Barilla, Anthony’s (we like this brand but it’s too regional and only sold in Los Angeles), Montebello Organic, Great Value, Dreamfield, Pagasa, Simply Nature, First Street, Sun Harvest, Trader Joe’s
Gwynedd Stuart
Sporked Staff
Jordan Myrick
