To ask if you need superhuman powers to know how much pasta to cook

[FelicisWolf]

Seriously, I put in however much I think looks 'about right', and it's either enough to feed the 5000 or turns out to be a portion size akin to an overpriced Michelin restaurant who expects their diners to have stomachs the size of ants. How to know what the actual right amount is? It's just me and DH, but we sometimes entertain and sometimes want to make double quantities for lunch the next day. How do you super humans do it?!

You weigh it?

I weigh mine. I weight so greedy that I'd always put in much too much.

A 500g bag of dry pasta feeds 6 of us.
HTH.

I usually weigh it...

If it’s spaghetti I can divvy up by eye generally.

I always used to get it wrong. For the last year I’ve alwaya got it right. Wish I knew why. Only possibility is I now make pasta once a week so maybe my eye’s got better.

Wish I could help.

75 g per person dry weight.

50g if you have loads of veggies going i to the sauce.

Weigh it. Around 80g per person. Or 100g if hungry/greedy like me!

Yanbu. I cook pasta for the 1 and 3 year old. Every time I put two handfuls in the pan. Every time there's too much. I know there will be too much, bit it looks so little when uncooked!

About 2/3rds of the small bag for 5 of us (one is very small though

I weigh it.

75g per person doesn't do us. I've started doing 500 for 2 adults and 2 children. Before I'm called greedy I'm 5'7" and 9.6 stone and both children lower centiles for weight. They just love pasta!!!! Sometimes we have a little left over and sometimes it all goes

I weigh it too.

Yes op, you do need superhuman powers. I don't think I've ever gotten it right.

Scales and weigh it.

Although if I'm doing more portions for leftovers, I tend to cut the portion size down a little, as somehow otherwise we get lots leftover (and its even worse with rice or couscous). So while I would normally do 75g a person if it's a dish with a lot of sauce/100g each if less sauce, I tend to drop it to 65g/80g each if it's more than 4 portions.

And then add an extra handful if it looks too little :)

I pour it onto a plate, it doesn't increase too much when cooked, so I pour as much as I would eat on a plate, then into the pan.

Yeah, I do 100g dry weight for a main for an adult too and 75 for a 12 yo.

I weigh it too, only found out that the holes in the handle of the fancy wooden pasta spoon we were given is to portion spaghetti! It's been a revelation

I just fill a bowl before putting it in the water - 1 bowl to 2 people.

Get a pasta spoon. The hole equals one portion of dried spaghetti.

You take how much you would like to eat.

And divide it by about 10.

Sad but true

It's easy.

Average adult = 100 g
Big eater = 120-130 g
Light eaters, children - 50-75 g

The superhuman bit is looking at what you've weighed out and being able to not think 'nah, that doesn't look like anywhere near enough' and tipping in the rest of the packet.

80g dry pasta per adult serving. I buy it in 1kg packets and eyeball one third for the four of us (4x80=320g). One bottomless pit and one tween balance out as two normal portions.
Seems to work...

Can't believe how much effort people put in to this. Just chuck some in. If it's not enough, do more. If it's too much, you'll be full.

I reckon it doubles. So, if you're feeding 2, put what looks like enough for 1 in the pan and it'll be enough for 2.