Pasta Portion Calculator
Work out how much dry pasta and sauce to cook per person.
Last updated · View algorithm, constants and default inputs (JSON)
About this calculator
Portion sizes differ by appetite and by whether pasta is the main course or a starter. As a rule, a main-course serving is 100 grams of dry pasta, and sauce works out at about 150 grams per person.
Worked example
calculated with the default values below
Number of people 4 people · Portion size Average main (100 g) Dry pasta 400 g · Cooked pasta 900 g · Sauce 600 g · Calories per person 357 kcal
General background references
Disclaimer
These calculators give general cooking guidance. Ingredient density, oven calibration, altitude and equipment all vary, and safe minimum internal temperatures always take precedence over timings. Follow the food-safety advice issued by your national authority.
Implementation source
This record describes the implementation used by this page. It is not independent validation. External references, when available, support only the stated formula or definition; estimates and custom rules retain their own assumptions.
Formula and variables
dry = n w; cooked = 2.25 dry; sauce = 150 n; E_p = 3.57 w kcal
- n
- Number of people
- w
- Dry pasta per person (70 / 100 / 130 g)
- E_p
- Calories per person (kcal)
w lookup: small 70 g, main 100 g, large 130 g; cooked weight uses a 2.25 yield factor.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the calculator assume 150 grams of sauce per person?
The sauce figure is fixed at 150 grams per person regardless of the dry-pasta portion, which scales with appetite: small is 70 g, main 100 g, large 130 g. Calories per person are then 100 g times 3.57, about 357 kcal for a main serving. The model assumes cooked pasta weighs 2.25 times the dry weight, so 100 g dry yields 225 g cooked; heavier appetites raise only the pasta, not the sauce.