Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer – Salt the Pot for Pasta

Happy Tuesday TKW Family!  It’s time for another edition of Tuesday’s tip with The Kitchen Whisperer.  This week we’re going to discuss cooking pasta and when to add the salt.  Simply put, “Salt the pot, not the pasta.” But let me expand a bit further, you want to salt the BOILING WATER, not cold water. Why?  If you use a stainless steel pot and add salt to the cold water, what’ll happen is the inside of the pan will look ‘pitted’.  This is essentially a form of rust and that’s bad, very bad.  You want to add the salt to the boiling water BEFORE you add the pasta.

So why do this?

By adding the salt before the pasta, the salt dissolves into the water and then pasta absorbs the salt along with the water as it cooks. You’re salting from the inside out. However if you cook the pasta in plain water and wait to salt until afterwards, the pasta will taste bland no matter how delicious your sauce is.  Plus if your pasta has been properly salted, it often means you don’t need as much salt in the accompanying sauces.

So how much salt should you add to the boiling water?  While there’s no exact measurement the rule of thumb is for every pound of pasta, add no less than 1 1/2 tablespoon of salt. And of course, remember, this you’re adding the salt AFTER the water has come to a boil.