Portions with 125g of uncooked pasta feel fine to me. That‘s 450 calories. Plus sauce (200 on the low end, 350 calories on the high end, depending on what exactly you want to eat – 200 calories would be something like a 400g can of tomatoes, garlic, onions, some olive oil) and cheese (100 calories for 25g Parmesan) you end up with a meal that‘s between 750 and 900 calories.
That between a normal and large-ish meal, though in both cases not exactly huge. Definitely something you could conceivably eat every day without much trouble, though I do agree that something with less carbs would probably be a bit more filling.
125g uncooked dried pasta should be about 280g cooked pasta.
Don’t get me wrong, I can eat 180g of uncooked pasta no problem. But that tends to go right up to the line of feeling very full.
Uncooked.
depends on the pasta type though.
Spaghetti can be easily 180g.
Penne, Fusilli or Rigatoni, let's say 150g.
My sauces are generally quite light. I'm vegetarian, so they never involve calorie-dense ingredients such as guanciale or pancetta. (I know, I know, what am I missing and so on... :D)
For me pasta means less ingredients as possible, at the highest possible quality.
Examples: Fresh Tomato-Basil Spaghetti.
I use only spaghetti from selected Italian brands such as De Cecco - low end but extremely good in my opinion - Rummo or Gentile, organic Tomatoes from a fresh food store, my own home-grown basil, extra virgin olive oil from Calabria, chili also from Calabria, extra-fine tomato extract from Mutti.
Fettucelle burro e limone: Fettuccelle DeCecco, Irish butter, Bio shallots, Phu Quoc black pepper, organic Lemons (from Sorrento when in Italy, just bio when here in Germany) for the juice and the zest.
Fusilli or Rigatoni alla Norma. Organic tomato sauce from Mutti with pieces of tomatoes, organic aubergines from Italy, same olive oil from Calabria, same chili from calabria, my own basil...
And so on: Aglio e Olio e Peperoncino, Arrabbiata, Puttanesca, Pasta all'aglione, ecc.. The sauce is never heavy, and the pasta itself can shine.
As you can see I also never cook pasta as an afterthought. This way, you can definitely control how much you eat.
Habits subjected to radically change when I visit mamma e babbo back in Italy.
Don’t get me wrong, 180g is no problem for me, I can even over-indulge and go for more, but that insures feeling disgusting afterwards (in that sense 180g seems like a pretty good delineator between large but possible and too much).
Currently I’m losing weight (very necessary) so I’m hyper-aware of portion size and while the first couple of weeks 125g portions felt unimaginably small I think I got used to them and they don’t leave me back empty anymore. But, yeah, not as filling as something with much more vegetables and, say, tofu and some rice.
You nearly had me, but then wouldn't the same quantity absorb the same amount of water? I've no idea really, but wouldn't you serve the same quantity of sauce with the pasta?
That seems like a pretty good rule of thumb. I tend to eat a bit less than that. If I'm planning for a group doing some activity like strenuous hiking, I'll plan for a bit more. But 4-5 people to a box/pound sounds about right.
I'm trying to get an understanding of the portions that you guys are talking about. Am I correct that:
125g would be roughly .3 liters or 1.25 cups of a pasta like spaghetti (i.e. one that isn't hollow so it fills up most of the available space)
25g of cheese would be just enough to melt and form a thin layer over the top of the pasta
I think that I would want some meatballs or cubed chicken (or a vegetarian equivalent) to feel satisfied. However, I also probably wouldn't add the cheese so maybe it equals out somewhat.
Portions with 125g of uncooked pasta feel fine to me. That‘s 450 calories. Plus sauce (200 on the low end, 350 calories on the high end, depending on what exactly you want to eat – 200 calories would be something like a 400g can of tomatoes, garlic, onions, some olive oil) and cheese (100 calories for 25g Parmesan) you end up with a meal that‘s between 750 and 900 calories.
That between a normal and large-ish meal, though in both cases not exactly huge. Definitely something you could conceivably eat every day without much trouble, though I do agree that something with less carbs would probably be a bit more filling.
125g uncooked dried pasta should be about 280g cooked pasta.
Don’t get me wrong, I can eat 180g of uncooked pasta no problem. But that tends to go right up to the line of feeling very full.