My mom's advice about salting pasta water was way off

So my mom always told me to salt the pasta water until it tastes like the ocean, basically a ton of salt. I did that for years and my pasta always came out fine but nothing special. Then my friend who actually went to culinary school watched me cook last week and laughed. She said you only need about 1 tablespoon of salt per 4 quarts of water, not half a cup. I tried it her way and honestly the pasta tasted better, not as briny and the sauce actually came through more. I felt kinda dumb but she explained that too much salt can mess with the starch release. Has anyone else found that less salt works better for pasta or am I the only one who was oversalting forever?

2 comments

2 Comments

paulm9521d ago

Right? I used to dump in so much salt until my buddy who cooks for a living basically called me out. Now I just do a light sprinkle and the pasta tastes way better.

drew90621d ago

So does that mean we're all out here just following some old school rule without actually thinking about it? My grandma did the same thing with the ocean salt thing and I just assumed that was the law. But now that you mention the starch thing, it makes total sense why my sauces always tasted a bit off. I tried the lighter salt approach last week and my aglio e olio finally tasted like it was supposed to instead of a salt bomb. Its wild how much stuff we pick up from family that is just wrong or way over the top. I bet the same goes for adding oil to the water or rinsing pasta too.