Cloudy water is the dead giveaway.

Cloudy water is the dead giveaway.

Yes, cloudy water and brittle strands are the two biggest flags.

Good spaghetti is made from 100% durum wheat semolina. That flour has high protein, low starch release, and a hard, golden kernel. When you cook it, the water stays mostly clear (maybe a little milky but not opaque). Cheap spaghetti uses soft wheat or a blend — higher starch, lower protein. That starch bleeds into the water almost immediately, turning it cloudy and often leaving a foamy scum on top.

Brittleness is the other tell. Pick up a dry strand and try to bend it. Good pasta bends a lot before it snaps, often with a clean break. Cheap pasta snaps like a dry twig, sometimes with little fragments flying off. You’ll also see more broken pieces in the box itself. That’s from weak gluten structure — the flour can’t hold together during drying and shipping.

If your spaghetti looks like a broken jigsaw puzzle in the package, it’s not going to get better in the pot.