Pasta calories, dry and cooked
Dry pasta is 371 calories per 100 g and cooked is 158. USDA’s serving is 2 oz dry — 57 g, about 211 calories, which is a good deal less pasta than anyone puts in a pan.
| Per 100 g | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pasta, dry | 371 | 13.0 g | 74.7 g | 1.5 g |
| Pasta, cooked | 158 | 5.8 g | 30.9 g | 0.9 g |
The serving nobody serves
57 g of dry pasta cooks up to roughly 130 g — a modest bowl. A 500 g box is meant to be nine servings. Most households treat it as three or four. That is not a moral failing, but it is where "I logged a serving of pasta" and "I ate 700 calories of pasta" diverge.
| Serving | Weight | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 oz | 57 g | 211 | 7.4 g | 42.6 g | 0.9 g |
| 1 cup shells | 64 g | 237 | 8.3 g | 47.8 g | 1.0 g |
| 1 cup farfalle | 81 g | 301 | 10.6 g | 60.5 g | 1.2 g |
| 1 cup lasagna | 90 g | 334 | 11.7 g | 67.2 g | 1.4 g |
| 1 cup spaghetti | 91 g | 338 | 11.9 g | 67.9 g | 1.4 g |
| 1 cup penne | 95 g | 352 | 12.4 g | 70.9 g | 1.4 g |
Dry. USDA’s cup figures are for dry shells.
| Serving | Weight | Calories | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cup shells | 105 g | 166 | 6.1 g | 32.4 g | 1.0 g |
| 1 cup penne | 107 g | 169 | 6.2 g | 33.0 g | 1.0 g |
| 1 cup rotini | 107 g | 169 | 6.2 g | 33.0 g | 1.0 g |
| 1 cup farfalle | 107 g | 169 | 6.2 g | 33.0 g | 1.0 g |
| 1 cup lasagne | 116 g | 183 | 6.7 g | 35.8 g | 1.1 g |
| 1 cup elbows not packed | 120 g | 190 | 7.0 g | 37.0 g | 1.1 g |
Cooked, unsalted.
Cooked pasta absorbs less than rice
Pasta roughly 2.3× its dry weight in water, against about 2.8× for rice and more than 3× for oats. It also holds that ratio more predictably, because pasta is boiled to a texture rather than until the water is gone. Weighing dry is still the reliable move.
What actually makes pasta a big meal
Not the pasta. 57 g dry is 211 calories, which is unremarkable. Then two tablespoons of olive oil is 238, a sauce with cream is several hundred more, and cheese on top is dense enough to matter. The pasta is usually the smallest number on the plate and it is the only one most people log.
Whole wheat, protein pasta and the rest
These figures are unenriched standard pasta. Whole wheat is close on calories and higher in fiber. Legume pastas made from chickpea or lentil flour genuinely are higher in protein and differ enough that you should scan the box rather than use this page. The calorie figure for all of them lands nearer to each other than the packaging implies.
Source: USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy release 2018-04. Figures are per 100 g as published; serving weights are USDA’s own. Records used: Pasta, dry, unenriched (FDC 168927), Pasta, cooked, unenriched, without added salt (FDC 168928).
Common questions
USDA’s serving is 2 oz dry — 57 g, about 211 calories. That cooks up to roughly 130 g.
About 166 for a cup of cooked shells at 105 g, or 169 for penne at 107 g, at 158 calories per 100 g.
Dry is more reliable. Pasta absorbs about 2.3 times its weight in water, and how long you boiled it changes the cooked figure.
Barely — 252 against 266 calories per 100 g for the bread equivalents, and the pasta gap is similar. The real difference is fiber, not energy.
Compare it with
| Food | Per 100 g | Protein | The page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quinoa | 120 cooked | 4.4 g | Against rice, without the superfood language |
| Bread | 266 kcal | 8.9 g | Slice weight is the only variable that matters |
| Potato | 93 kcal | 2.5 g | Identical to sweet potato on calories |
All twenty-four are on the food macros index.
Log it without doing this arithmetic
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