Cooking pasta with salt and water

Sometimes I forget to add salt. Can I add the salt after I put the pasta in,
or will the salt stick to the pasta and make it very salty?


W. Pooh (AKA Winnie P.)
 
On Feb 1, 3:57 pm, [email protected] (Steve Pope) wrote:
Pasta cooked in salty water tastes better than pasta cooked in plain
water. Easy enough to validate--just make two batches, drain and
taste test. I would think you can add the salt any time shortly
before or after you put the pasta in, as the volume of water is large
compared to the size of the pasta. -aem
 
HumBug! wrote:




I see pasta as analogous to bread. Most bread has salt in it,
which makes it taste like the stuff that is in bread -- wheat, yeast.
But some bread is unsalted because it's intended to be eaten
with something salty like salumi or cheese or porchetta. A lot of Italian
bread is unsalted.

If I'm making pasta with red sauce and there is Italian sausage
in the sauce, I'm fine with the only salty ingredient being the sausage.
Or if it is pasta puttinesca, the anchovies/olives will provide
the salt. Pasta Romano, with cheese, oil and pepper, has salt in
the cheese. You usually do not need more than one salt ingredient
in a dish.


S.
 
"aem" wrote in message
news:924795b0-ffdf-4e99-98b0-0f1763151293@a28g2000prb.googlegroups.com...

True. And it's not like it's going to absorb much when it first enters the
water anyway, if it's dried pasta.


W. Pooh (AKA Winnie P.)
 
aem wrote:




Well, perhaps my affinity for salt is different from yours. And
in any case I like "surface salt" -- sea salt applied after a
dish is composed, or when it is close to completion.

There are some exceptions, and one is pasta in broth (e.g. pasta
and leeks which I wish to be slightly soupy... not a total broth
dish like you would find in Italy, but in that direction).

Steve
 
"Christopher M." wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Salt raises boiling temperature to a very small degree, given the amount of
salt usually put into the pasta water.

IF you want to cut your bubbling. add 1 tablespoon oil to the water. The
lessening of bubbles will astound you.

Kent
 
On Tue, 1 Feb 2011 23:57:52 +0000 (UTC), [email protected] (Steve
Pope) wrote:

Really? I find it's very bland, the kind of bland that can't be cured
later if I don't add salt to the boiling water. For me, it's not a
question of "if", it's a question of "how much". I don't subscribe to
the salty as the sea method. Just a few shakes (maybe 1/4 tsp at the
most) for 4-6 qts of water.

--

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
 
Portland wrote on Wed, 2 Feb 2011 05:23:25 -0800 (PST):


I haven't cooked pasta with salt or oil for years. When adding pasta to
boiling water there is tendency for lots of foaming but this is no
problem with a big enough pot. I'd always been told that the oil
prevented the strands from sticking to each other but I've never noticed
any difference.

If you want to add salt later, do so since it will dissolve immediately.
I don't think pasta absorbs much salt but a little salty water will
remain if you don't rinse it.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not
 
On Feb 1, 3:54?pm, "Christopher M."
wrote:

It is a Federal crime to add salt after you've added the pasta. 10
years to life.
 
On 2/1/2011 7:20 PM, Kent wrote:

I just recently discovered that with rice. Rice always bubbled over
with foam no matter the size of the pot. Once I read here that some
sort of fat would reduce the foam, I've never had that problem again. I
use just a little slice of butter in the cooking water.
 
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