In the recipes I find in books and magazines, it often states to cook the spaghetti (or whatever shape the pasta has) “according to the instructions on the package”.
Oh, really? So what would happen if that part of the recipe fell off? Would all good Americans cook their pasta without looking at the cooking instructions? Don’t think so.
Most likely scenario is that the chef in charge of your local kitchen pot will be able to figure out how long the fusilli needs to spend in the water. With or without the help of the persistent little egg timer chiming.
Humans have been able to figure out when the macaroni is done, since the beginning of pasta – even before the egg timer was invented.
Checked with my buddy in Italy. Ingela never reads the instructions on the package, but is taste testing for when it’s done. She used capital letters for NEVER in her response to my email.