Even simpler and for little more money ($30), get a high-quality kitchen scale. A serving of pasta is 2 oz, so just weigh and go. The scale at the link satisfies my own criteria: digital readout, accurate to 0.1 oz (none of this 1/8 oz nonsense). I use my scale constantly, BTW---one of the most useful of my essential kitchen tools.

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Hmm. Links didn't work.

1. High-quality kitchen scale:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Bakers-Catalogue-Escali-Digital/dp/B000EB9I30/sr=1-4/qid=1166558472/ref=sr_1_4/002-2348786-5079222?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen

2. Essential kitchen tools:
http://leisureguy.wordpress.com/2006/12/19/to-use-fitday-indeed-to-cook-have-these-on-hand/

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I always just grap a bundle of dry spaghetti in my hand which is about the diameter of a U.S. quarter for each serving, and have been doing that the last 20 years. Don't need a fancy gadget to do that, as I have a pretty good idea how big a quarter is.

Granted it makes probably too large a serving, but I love me some pasketti.

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I put a tall glass on the kitchen scale, zero out the weight, and then weigh-out the spaghetti in the glass. That thing is destined for the gadget graveyard (the back of some little-used kitchen drawer).

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Uuh, last time I checked books were for reading .Yeah that's right, they still are. Just grab a bunch of spaghetti with your hands. Even aliens can tell how much the amount they need is.

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$21 to do the same job as a $1 plastic spaghetti sizer that'll take up a fraction of the storage space?

Okaaaaayyyyyy. It's wonderful how Design simplifies our lives, isn't it?

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And how about measuring penne or linguini or the multitude of other shapes?

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One of the great mysteries of the foodie universe is why we're supposed to believe that roasting a chicken is dead easy while making pasta is a delicate, difficult task.

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Yet another gimmicky single use tool. I vote for the multi-purpose kitchen scale. I figure 3 to 5 oz. pasta per serving. (SteveCs’ method also works well for spaghetti.) I wish recipe writers gave weights more often. Wouldn't it be easier to weigh flour? What's a large onion? I consider my scale essential.

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Um, am I the only one here who never bothers to measure the spaghetti or any other pasta? I just dump in a half a box or a box, depending on how much I need to make. Plus, I like to have leftovers!

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