Barilla Just Answered the Pasta Question Everyone Argues About

To break or not to break? It’s a debate that has divided folks around the dinner table (and online) for ages. Some argue that snapping pasta in half is simply a practical decision: It fits into the pot better—so what? For others though, breaking pasta is nothing short of a culinary crime, one that might cause any Italian nonna to gasp in distress.

Luckily, Barilla’s own chef Lorenzo of Bologna, Italy, has settled the dispute once and for all. Here, we’ll dive into the history, tradition, and very strong feelings behind this controversial pasta question.

Should You Break Your Pasta Before Cooking?

Long before pasta came in neat little boxes on grocery store shelves, Italians were crafting it by hand and air drying it on racks or rods. This often resulted in excessively long noodles that had to be cut or broken before cooking. Today, however, long pastas like spaghetti and linguini are pre-cut and packaged to the perfect length for twirling around a fork.

“One of the reasons why people love spaghetti so much is because once twirled around the fork, it offers a very satisfying ‘dense’ bite, something you can’t replicate with short pieces of pasta that won’t allow you to create a tight nest with the fork,” notes Lorenzo on the Barilla website.

Not only does breaking your noodles detract from the intended flavor and eating experience of your dish, it’s also widely considered to be bad luck and an insult to the pasta maker. When most of us are in the kitchen we do our very best to infuse everything with goodness and love. We certainly don’t want to cause pain to anyone’s ancestors or accidentally stir a curse right into the spaghetti!

The Best Way to Cook Spaghetti, According to Barilla

Lorenzo’s top tip to avoid breaking your long noodles is simply to use a larger pot. He says the best pasta pots should be large enough to hold 8 to 12 quarts of water per pound of noodles. He also encourages cooks to continuously stir the noodles during the boiling process to encourage even cooking. Other chefs suggest using wide, tall-sided saute pans for noodles. Using a more shallow pan will yield a more concentrated pasta water for dishes like cacio e pepe or carbonara.

So should we break our pasta? The experts say no, in the name of tradition and texture.

While some rules are made to be broken, this one might just need to be upheld. Leave your noodles long, give them enough room in your pot, twirl that fork, and make Nonna proud.