The first written record of pasta comes from the Talmud in the 5th century AD and refers to dried pasta that could be cooked through boiling,

The popularity of spaghetti spread throughout Italy after the establishment of spaghetti factories in the 19th century, enabling the mass production of spaghetti for the Italian market.

In the United States around the end of the 19th century, spaghetti was offered in restaurants as Spaghetti Italienne (which likely consisted of noodles cooked past al dente, and a mild tomato sauce flavored with easily found spices and vegetables such as cloves, bay leaves, and garlic) and it was not until decades later that it came to be commonly prepared with oregano or basil.

At its simplest, imitation spaghetti can be formed using no more than a rolling pin and a knife. A home pasta machine simplifies the rolling and makes the cutting more uniform. But of course cutting sheets produces pasta with a rectangular rather than a cylindrical cross-section and the result is a variant of Fettucine. Some pasta machines have a spaghetti attachment with circular holes that extrude spaghetti or shaped rollers that form cylindrical noodles.

Spaghetti can be made by hand by manually rolling a ball of dough on a surface to make a long sausage shape. The ends of the sausage are pulled apart to make a long thin sausage. The ends are brought together and the loop pulled to make two long sausages. The process is repeated until the pasta is sufficiently thin. The pasta knobs at each end are cut off leaving many strands which may be hung up to dry.

A hydraulic press with automatic spreader built by Consolidated Macaroni Machine Corporation, Brooklyn, New York. This machine was the first ever made to spread long cut alimentary paste products on to a drying stick for the automatic production of spaghetti.

Dried spaghetti being measured with a "spaghetti measure". 1 portion of dried pasta equals 4.1 ounces, twice the amount of 1 serving on the package (1/2 in circle or 2 oz.). The measure can portion out 1, 2, 3, or 4 servings based on the diameter of the circle. This spaghetti is an enriched macaroni product made with 100% semolina.

In Italy, spaghetti is generally cooked al dente (Italian for "to the tooth"), fully cooked but still firm to the bite. It may also be cooked to a softer consistency.