- Still in San Francisco.

- And my name is Steve-O.

- And now it's time to not have spaghetti-O

but to have spaghetti.

- Today on worth it we're going to be trying

three excellent forms of spaghetti,

at drastically different price points

to find out which one is the most worth it at it's price.

^- What is the singular of spaghetti?

- Spaghet?

- This will not be a traditional Italian food episode.

We are doing spaghetti as it's made in America.

- It has become an American staple.

- Possibly my favorite food.

- Pasta-bly?

- Yeah, pasta-bly my favorite food.

- So we're first headed off to a place called Barzotto.

- We're getting truly an American classic,

spaghetti and meatballs.

^(upbeat music)

^- I'm Michelle Minori, I'm the executive chef of Barzotto.

^Here in the mission and today we're gonna have

^spaghetti and meatballs.

So Barzotto is a fast, casual concept

where you can come in and get a great bowl

of handmade pasta without costing an arm and a leg.

- So I take it you make all of your noodles in house?

- We do, we make everything here from scratch by hand.

Starts with semolina flour, we get from Justo's,

tap water and you actually need it in this machine

until it looks like wet sand.

We use bronze dies, so you know they get hot really fast.

we have a really amazing pasta extruder,

it comes out of the extruder it's got all

these tiny little scratches on them.

So we want the dough to be the perfect hydration

so those little striations or scratches,

just really catch that rich sauce.

- [Andrew] So it's textured a little bit.

- So not super smooth like that stuff you find

in the store, most of the time the noodles have

a specific length, which is around nine inches.

But ours we make it 18 because we want to be extra fun.

(laughs)

it doesn't have to be super Italian here.

We also air dry our pasta for about an hour

because you're never gonna truly get like an al dente pasta

when it's fresh, so we make a really rich marinara sauce

and then of course we have our meatballs.

They're part turkey and part pork.

We pour that rich marinara over them and we back them.

We drop our noodles in the water

and all of our noodles cook around three to four minutes

and then they all come together in the pan

so that sauce really soaks into the noodle,

top it with Parmigiano and fresh herbs.

There's a really cool place in the fact that, you know,

all of our houses are 20 bucks or less.

All of our wine's 10 bucks by the glass.

And you can't go anywhere in San Francisco

and get a bowl of pasta for $14.

That's unheard of.

We want to make really good food

and we want to give you really good service.

- [Andrew] Here we go spaghetti.

^- And meatballs, cheerio.

- Cheerio.

I'm just gonna take a little bit, just the way

that the noodle feels on the fork,

you can tell it still has that stiffness,

that structural integrity to the noodle.

Cheers.

(jazzy music)

Oh damn.

- Mmm, there is a bite to that spaghetti.

- I'm blown away by this noodle.

- It's the lack of slipperiness.

- [Andrew] Yes, friction going in.

- It's like when you're trying to climb a rope

you need a rope with friction to climb it to the top.

- Adam get right in here.

We're not wasting any time this time.

- And bring in the reliever

from the very beginning.

- So good.

This is the noodle and he is the sauce

and I'm latched on.

We move as a unit.

- [Andrew] Meatball time.

Oh yeah.

- Oh,

- [Andrew] Such a luscious meatball.

I don't know what is better in this bowl,

the meatball or the spaghetti?

Ultimate pasta dish.

- [Michelle] We also do a full roasted Porchetta,

- Really?

- Yeah it's the best in the city.

- [Andrew] Is it the whole like half pig deal?

- We play on that, so we fabricate our own with a loin

and a belly and then we roast it.

^- Oh man, - mmm.

^- Here's the porchetta.

^- Oh, oh.

- How could we resist, I can't believe you can also get this

at a place where you get a $14 bowl

of spaghetti and meatballs.

^Oh.

- Long spaghetti, fresh pasta, meatballs, classic.

- And the surprise porchetta.

Pulling it out of left field.

Pulling it out of

the oven. - The oven.

So we're back in Los Angeles now.

Spaghetti,

- Fact.

- Fact!

^Spaghetti fact.

^- Spaghetto is the singular form of spaghetti.

^- What no!

- Did we already talk about this earlier?

^What is the singular of spaghetti.

- So one spaghetto, plus another spaghetto equals spaghetti.

- So now we're in Los Angeles, we're heading Downtown

to a place called Cento pasta bar.

It's actually a lunch pasta spot inside of a wine bar.

- That's awesome, it's like a mullet.

Pasta in the day, wine at night.

Cento pasta bar.

^(upbeat music)

^- Hi so I'm Avner, this is my restaurant,

^it's called Cento pasta bar.

Cento means 100.

I find that pasta for lunch,

100 grams is the perfect portion.

If not you feel groggy and weighed down afterwards.

So our whole thing is we're only open for lunch,

we do a hundred gram portions of pasta

and at night they just do the wine bar.

it's called Mignon wine bar.

I change the menu every week, but we only keep one thing

on the menu, its our beet spaghetti and that's what you guys

are gonna be trying.

- [Steve] Why beets?

- I had to do vegetarian option.

It wasn't just pesto, I think everyone does pesto.

So I really like beets but I find that

a lot of people don't like beets.

They don't like beets

because they think they're cooked wrong.

So I clean the beats pretty well.

I roast them until they're really dehydrated

and their flavor is just concentrated.

I puree it, I brown some butter in a pan,

add a little poppy seed,

it's a very traditional, Italian combination,

poppy seeds, beets, add the puree,

we only get Italian pasta.

I find that the wheat tastes better so I cook the spaghetti

in salted water and then I finish it in the sauce

so it picks up this beautiful purple color.

I do it a little less than too al dente

but I make it al dente enough.

The flavors kind of evolve in your mouth.

- [Andrew] So fresh versus hard pasta?

- There's no better, I don't think and there's no worse.

It's all about what direction you're going.

I find that hard pastas have again, the flavor of wheat

far more than fresh pastas.

With this one it's sweets because its beets.

But it's also a deep flavor and I think the brown butter

really compliments it.

I put the ricotta cheese on top.

Just a dollop of it on top

and then some chives on top of that.

So this is a really good contrast

'cause it's a really hot pasta,

but some cold ricotta cheese on top.

(upbeat music)

^- Here's to (clinks) beets.

^- Little known fact about me, bizarre last name,

its Ukrainian, beets and poppy seeds are two

of the most important flavors in Ukrainian cuisine.

- I did not know that.

It's like made for you.

- It's enticing because I've never seen these two things

in such a setting.

- [Steve] Almost too pretty too eat.

- So I'm gonna go in for the first twirl.

Look at that, know how strawberries have

those tiny little seeds on the outside of their skin,

those little black specs?

Doesn't that kind of look like that?

Cheers.

Oh man.

- Wow.

- Hell yeah.

- Whoa.

I was not expecting that at all.

- No,

- What?

You look at this and you're like, okay I'm about to eat

some fruit Gushers but instead you're eating

a delicious earthy, slightly salty

but like you know that poppy seed comes in and like.

- Yeah, the flavor is actually like muted

and deeper and richer here.

- Also, I ate a bite of the beets

and it looks like I just kissed somebody with lipstick.

- Could I try to recreate that, let's check it out.

Ready?

What are you doing coming home

with that pink stain on your neck?

Smooching somebody on the side Steven?

- Just smooching the beets.

- Also the pasta, you really can taste the wheat

of the noodle, it's not covered up by sauce.

- Another one beets the dust.

Hey, hey, hey, hey.

- Nice.

- Hey.

This is wonderful.

- Yeah this is alright.

I had a really good time with you today.

- Hey, me too.

- Well, you can't beet that.

(laughs)

- Here we go.

- Wow what a delicious feast we had.

- It was really interesting that he was saying

that dry pasta and fresh pasta,

neither are inferior or superior.

- Two sides of the same coin.

- I'd almost say that I'm a fresh pasta this episode.

- I would definitely take being the dry pasta.

- You're definitely dry pasta of the show.

- Yeah, and Adam in the meat ball.

I want to tell you another spaghetti fact.

- Oh yeah?

- Yeah.

(laughs)

God.

- Spaghetti fact.

^♪ Spaghetti fact ♪

^- According to a 1975 etiquette guide,

^the proper way to eat spaghetti is with a fork and spoon.

^You take a large spoon, you pick up some spaghetti

^with your fork prongs and you twirl it inside the curve

^of a spoon to create a nice wad to stick in your mouth.

- How can you decide the right way to eat spaghetti?

- And if you're doing that then you never get to slurp.

- Wow, is slurping rude?

- It's fun.

- Okay, so our last spot I'm really excited about this spot.

Republique, it's an Uni pasta.

^We've had caviar, we've had lobster, we've had truffle,

^but the new hotness, and what we're about to hit up

uni lobster pasta and you choose the amount of truffle

that you want on that dish so.