Q&A for How to Measure Dry Pasta

The best choice would be to use a kitchen scale. Otherwise, you can divide it into four groups as equally as possible and use two and a half of the groups.

A pasta measure (or spaghetti tool) has various holes which indicate various serving sizes. Usually, there is one labeled as a single serving. To measure, simply fill the hole with a bunch of the pasta until full. These tools are quite straight-forward to use.

As dry pasta generally doubles in size when cooked, 1 cup of dry elbows should be perfect.

Pasta is portioned by the weight of the dry pasta rather than the volume since the shape greatly affects how much fits in a measuring cup. A pound of pasta is about right for 8 people -- the portion is generally about 2 ounces dry per person. You also need to consider if the pasta is the entrée and how much will be added to it -- a lot of meat and or veggies or just a thin sauce. If the pasta is basically the meal and you're not adding much to it, or you're serving other filling items, then cook more. Leftover cooked pasta stores well and it is always better to have too much food than not enough, as you can chill the remainder for another day (and refrigerated cooked pasta is healthier than the first cooked round of pasta anyway, as the starches change to the more beneficial form).

Generally when a recipe calls for a pound of pasta, it means the measurements prior to cooking.

Each serving is about 100 g per person, so from 900 grams you can serve up to 9 people.

Depending on the composition of the salad, about 100-150 g per person, so at least 6-9 kg (roughly 13 to 20 lb).

It is about 1.5 cups. The best thing is to buy a digital scale so that you can measure it out properly.

The box of pasta should have serving sizes on the back.

That's about 6 cups.

One child would eat 40 - 60 grams, one adult around 100 grams. If the ages are mixed, I would suggest approx 85 grams per person, so 5.1 kg of dry pasta should work fine. If they are all children aged 3 to 10, around 3.5 kg would work; if you're feeding a troop of very hungry soldiers, I would consider at least 8.5 kg!

You would need 480 ounces of the pasta. This is equivalent to 30 lbs. How I got my answer: 8 x 6 = 48; 80 x 6 = 480; 480 oz divided by 16 = 30 lbs.

Probably about one box, or one and a half, depending on how much the people eat.