It might be tricky to decide how much pasta per person to cook if your recipe does stipulate the quantity. Perhaps you’ve cooked too much or too little pasta in the past and want to ensure you get the portions right.
We understand. Figuring out how much pasta to serve may be confusing, especially when they come in different shapes and sizes. Continue reading to find out how much pasta you need to apportion per person.
How Much Pasta Is In A Portion?
A single portion of pasta comprises about two ounces of dry pasta. This amounts to a cup of cooked pasta.
But determining these two ounces of dry pasta can be difficult, especially when dealing with different types of pasta. Therefore, using a kitchen scale, the most straightforward approach is to weigh your pasta portion size.
How Much Pasta Per Person?
Have you ever cooked too much pasta before? Or maybe you’ve made too little pasta for friends and family, resulting in someone going hungry.
Getting your pasta portion sizes wrong is a thing of the past. Below is our guide on choosing the perfect pasta portion sizes per person.
Note that the amount of pasta you need to serve will vary depending on whether it’s dry or fresh. And it is also based on the shape of the pasta.
Pasta Serving Size
When determining how much pasta per person, you will notice that different types and shapes of pasta will require varying quantities.
A cooking size that works for one variety of pasta may not work for another. It’s also vital to remember that the pasta shapes determine the cooking size serving per person.
Portion Size Based On The Type Of Pasta
Dry Pasta
Dry pasta expands significantly after cooking. Thus it’s always better to overestimate when cooking. A cooking size for pasta per person is two ounces (57 g) of dry pasta.
This is far less than if the pasta is cooked or fresh. However, sometimes the amount can vary. But this is the approximate amount to cook and serve for both a main or entrée dish.
Fresh Pasta
Fresh pasta is the closest to its original form and size before and after cooking. If you’re serving fresh pasta, you’ll need 115-150g or 4 to 5 ounces per person. But this quantity could go up to 6 to 7 ounces for fresh-filled pasta. That said, you can tweak the quantity based on the shape.
Portion Size Based On The Shape Of The Pasta
Long Shaped Pasta
Long pasta includes spaghetti, angel hair, and tagliatelle. The most common pasta shape is long pasta, which comes in various sizes. Because they are so long, determining the serving size might be difficult. It’s the easiest pasta to portion because it yields roughly the same amount when cooked.
When making long shape pasta, a good amount is 2 ounces (57 g) per person, about 1 cup of cooked pasta. The only exception is linguine, which is thinner. In this case, the ideal portion is 3 ounces (85 g), yielding 1 cup of cooked pasta.
Short Shaped Pasta
Short-shaped pasta is ideal for mac and cheese and is commonly tossed in sauces. But they are ideal when paired with thicker sauces. But, it’s also fantastic for more elaborate pasta dishes. Due to the shape, use 2 ounces to yield a ¾ cup of cooked pasta.
Conclusion
We’ve all been there, struggling to figure out how much pasta to serve per person. And taking a chance and eventually getting either too little or too much is not ideal. So, if you’re wondering how much pasta per person to cook, use our helpful guidelines to eliminate the guesswork.