Enter the boxing ring.
Pick your side.
Suit up for battle because I have a big topic to bring to the table this week: are you a spaghetti in a bowl or a spaghetti on a plate kind of person?
Because I am a sensible human and not a serial killer, I opt for pasta in a bowl.
Obviously.
It takes the stress level down a notch or 10 as you do not have to worry about the pasta snaking off the side of the plate and onto the floor.
It sits all curled up and cosy, waiting to be inhaled into my stomach.
The bowl sits nicely in my lap, warming me up as I eat my favourite comfort food and watch some mindless show on the television at the same time.
Good times, indeed!
I could swing either way (music to my husband’s ears) and eat spaghetti off a plate, but why would I do that in an already crazy world that is at times lacking order, manners and sensibility?
No thanks.
A bowl is simply perfect for all types of pastas such as tagliatelle, fusilli, fettuccine, penne, gnocchi and linguini.
All these little tasty swear words should always be bowl bound.
Even poor old rigatoni (the last pasta left on the shelf during COVID panic times) just doesn’t work on a plate.
Anyway, to sort this plate-versus-bowl debate, I turned to some experts.
One of my friends, Tony, owns Bocca Italian restaurant.
TK surely has the credibility to weigh into this debate.
“So, traditionally, the way spaghetti should be served is on a plate. However, we serve it in a coupe bowl which is a shallow main course-size bowl,” Tony said.
“We do this so it is easier to twirl the pasta around your fork,” he added.
Hmmm, not exactly a glowing endorsement of my theory.
Unmoved, I then turned to my friend Tricia, who is married to an Italian.
Tricia says bowl or plate all depends on a stack of variables including the size of the serving, if you have sauces that need “elevation” so they don’t leak off the plate.
Does the pasta require some cutting or are the ingredients all bite sized?
It all got extremely complicated quickly.
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I say a good pasta sauce should be celebrated, not elevated.
I wanted to take my bat and ball and go home (or should I say my bat and bowl).
Support for my theory from these so-called experts was vague at best.
In the end, I say I am right.
Pasta should be served in a bowl.
Remind me not to ask anyone if they’re spoon or no spoon.
Sami Muirhead is a radio announcer, blogger and commentator. For more from Sami tune into Mix FM.
