Gail Simmons is a judge on popular cooking shows such as “Top Chef.” She believes that adding too much salt to your pasta water can be harmful to your food. It is one of her unwritten pasta rules that she believes should be followed to enjoy all that pasta should be.
Pasta is truly a food that anyone can enjoy, whether he or she knows to cook well or not. It only simply requires someone to add water to a pot with salt, and set it to boil. When it begins to boil, add the pasta to cook until it is ready to eat.
As you can see, pasta is extremely simple to cook. Unfortunately, however, people still have the ability to mess up this simple cooking process. You have to have the perfect amount of salt in order for the pasta to cook right and for the pasta to taste right.
It is important to not add too much or too little salt to your pasta water. Too little salt can inhibit the flavor of your pasta, and it will almost give it no taste. Too much causes a whole other set of problems which will be discussed later.
There are other problems that can occur when cooking pasta as well. You could utilize a pot that is entirely too small. This too small pot will allow pasta to cook over or will cause pasta to stick together as they do not have room to cook by themselves. You can also cook pasta too long or too short of a time. Too long of a time will make pasta burnt and too soft. Too short of a time will make pasta still hard when eating.
The point of this article is to discuss over-salting your pasta, however. Famous chef Gail Simmons believes that there is a perfect amount of salt to utilize and pasta. She also believes that there is a perfect time to add salt to your pasta water.
Simmons believes that many home cooks are wrong when they add their salt before the water has even begun to boil. She believes that the most important time to add salt to pasta water is as soon as the water starts to boil. If you add salt too early, it will cause damage and erosion to the bottom of your pot. This is the same as if you add too much salt.
Simmons. believes that the correct amount of salt to add to your pasta water is two tablespoons per pound of pasta. Many individuals over-do this, however. She also believes that you need to keep a distinct eye on your pasta to wait until it is cooked the way you like it. Test a piece of pasta throughout the process to check on it.
Simmons adds that when cooking with the right amount of salt, you should save the salted water. You can add a bit into your pasta sauce to increase flavor. The rest can be stored in a jar that can be used when re-heating pasta to give that same flavor, for example.
