Many Italian restaurants serve spaghetti with a spoon.
Somebody please tell me if it is proper in the Italian culture to twirl the pasta using a fork and spoon.
I have been told several things:
a) yes, Italians use a spoon.
b) yes, Italians use a spoon…if they are children.
c) no, that is an American tradition.
that said, what do you do?
This is a very interesting question with a very short answer
NO SPOON
Saying this, I feel like I should provide reason for my adamant answer, the only reason I can give is that my friend who is from Sicily and I have had this discussion and she had told me that, no they do not use a spoon, in fact, she had only seen or heard of this done here (in America).
It’s not even proper in America, actually. Look in etiquette guides (Miss Manners, Emily Post, Amy Vanderbilt, etc.) and you’ll see that you’re supposed to twirl the pasta on the plate. As to whether it’s proper in Italian culture, I’ll have to defer to kevals and others with first- (or second-) hand knowledge.
I second kevals’ post. I also have an Italian friend (northern Italy) that says the same thing. Whenever we have dinner at her home she never uses a spoon when eating pasta.
One of the few things I remember about my maternal grandfather,who emigrated from Italy to the US in the early 1900s, is that he didn’t twirl his spaghetti at all. He just chopped it up with a fork. Don’t know that it’s proper, but that’s what he did.
He also gave me a Hershey bar when I was a kid, and a sip of his Old Crow. I’m pretty sure the Old Crow wasn’t proper, at least for a seven-year-old kid, but he was a cool guy.
My grandfather came over from northern Italy and insisted on the spoon. My mom and I do but my step dad from southern Italy does not. I sure don’t know about what’s proper…just my 2 cents.
when I was a kid, my mom taught me to twirl spaghetti with just a fork. Whenever I see people doing it with a spoon, I figure they weren’t trained properly. When I see people cut it up instead of twirling, I figure they must have had a warped and depraved upbringing to not have learned to twirl.
There is no spoon.
Folks who use a spoon to twirl their spaghetti are the same slope browed troglodytes who use a knife and fork when eating pizza or don’t fold their pizza in half while consuming it.
I’ve never seen or known anyone who used a spoon or cut their spaghetti up to eat it. Even here in Colorado Springs which is the whitest place I’ve ever seen people don’t use a spoon to twirl their spaghetti.