Should you cook pasta with or without salt? It may be a simple question, but using salt while cooking pasta makes a big difference. We always use salt and tell you exactly why you should too…
Cooking pasta with or without salt?
Cooking pasta is best done with salt. Salt makes your pasta more flavorful and this benefits your pasta dish. Use about 10 grams of salt per 3 liters of water. Add the salt to the water as soon as the water comes to a boil. Then cook the pasta until it is done.
So our advice is simple: cook pasta with salt. Of course, we advise you this for a reason. We have studied why you should use salt. Apart from the fact that every Italian grandmother swears by it, below we tell you exactly why.
Why use salt when cooking pasta?
Salt is a seasoning. Salt is used all over the world to make food more flavorful. It is a simple and affordable ingredient that gives your dish a flavor boost. This is also immediately the main reason to use salt while cooking pasta.
You cook the pasta in a large amount of water. By adding some salt to it, you give the pasta a slightly salty taste. This makes your final pasta dish taste just a lot nicer. It sounds almost too good to be true. A cheap and simple ingredient that makes your plate of pasta a lot tastier. Yet it really is true.
In Italy, pasta is always cooked in salt water. This is one of those age-old traditions that makes pasta in Italy taste so incredibly delicious!
What kind of salt should you use to cook pasta?
We mentioned salt earlier as a simple ingredient that makes a big difference. Of course, it is important to immediately use the right kind of salt for cooking pasta.
Salt comes in many shapes and sizes. You don’t even have to look far. As soon as you stand in front of the shelf of herbs and spices in the supermarket, you immediately see a number of types of salt. Sea salt, salt with coarse grains, salt with iodine, salt from the Himalayan mountains and several more. But which one should you choose and which is the best one to cook pasta with?
Cooking pasta is best done with the simplest variety of salt. Choose sea salt, in the finest grain available.
Choose sea salt with a fine grain of salt
What is very important when choosing salt is the coarseness of the salt grain. Because you are adding salt to boiling water, it is important that the salt dissolves quickly in the water. If you use coarse grains of salt, the dissolution can take a lot longer. As a result, there is a chance that the pasta will not get the salty taste from the water during cooking. And this, of course, would be a waste.
Use salt without iodine
Another thing you really need to pay attention to while picking out salt is that there is no iodine added to the salt. Iodine is gives an iron-like taste to the cooking water and therefore also to the pasta. Of course, this is not the intention! So make sure that there is no iodine listed on the label.
To sum up: to cook pasta with salt, it is best to choose sea salt, without iodine, and with as fine a grain as possible.
How much salt to use to cook pasta?
Salt gives your pasta dish a flavor boost. But too much salt gives too much of a boost! While cooking pasta, it is obviously important to use the right amount of salt.
There is no arguing about taste and what one person finds very salty, another finds tasteless. That’s why we give you our usual amount of salt. Then you have a starting point and can then choose to add more or less salt to the cooking water.
Use about 10 grams of salt per 3 liters of water. A normal pan easily holds 3 to 6 liters of water. So the amount of salt comes to about between 10 and 20 grams for a normal amount of water.
You’ll probably think 10 to 20 grams of salt sounds like a lot. But don’t worry, because a lot of salt remains in the water. This is because the pasta absorbs a certain amount of salt and the rest remains in the pan.
So it is important to use quite a bit of salt while cooking the pasta. This ensures that there is enough salt in the water and allows the salt to penetrate to the core of the pasta. Thus, after cooking, the pasta has acquired a slightly salty taste, making your dish a bit more flavorful again. And this, of course, is why we use salt when cooking pasta!
When to add salt when cooking pasta?
Now that you know exactly why and what kind of salt to add to the water when cooking pasta, it is important to add the salt at the right time.
You add salt to the water so that the pasta can absorb the salt properly. Then, of course, it is important that the salt is well dissolved in the water first. Otherwise, the pasta cannot absorb the salt. It sounds simple, yet the time to add salt to the water is super important.
Add the salt only after the water boils. When the water is boiling, the salt is absorbed much better. Another big plus if you ask us.
Once you’ve added the salt to the water, it’s helpful to give it a good stir with a large spoon. Because of the moving water, the salt will spread throughout the pan.
Once the water is boiling and the salt has been added, you can add the pasta to the pan and cook it until tender. In our blog “cooking pasta, how to do it” we tell you all about cooking pasta. Want to cook your pasta ‘al dente’ like they do in Italy? Then take a look at our blog ‘cooking pasta al dente, this is how you do it‘.
Using salt for different types of pasta
In Italy, there are more than 700 different types of pasta. And each type is meant for a particular dish. But is the amount of salt you use while cooking the same for all of them?
All those different types of pasta are generally made from durum wheat. Also called durum wheat. So basically it doesn’t matter much which type of pasta you want to cook, they are all made from the same ingredients. Only the shape is different.
Therefore, you can just use the same amount of salt while cooking all those types of pasta. If you stick to 10 grams of salt for every 3 liters of water, you can be sure you’re right.
Easily measure the amount of salt
If you are going to cook pasta and want to add salt to the water in an easy and quick way, there are a number of ways you can do this. The manliest way is to use a teaspoon or tablespoon. That way you can measure out the amount of salt as well as sprinkle it directly into the pan. The question is, how many grams of salt are in 1 teaspoon? The same question can be asked when using a tablespoon. That’s why we tell you how much salt fits on a teaspoon and a tablespoon.
Using a teaspoon to weigh out salt:
It’s a rough estimate, of course, but you can assume that 1 teaspoon fits about 2 grams of salt. So if you have a pan with about 3 liters of water, you need to add 5 teaspoons of salt to get to the 10 grams of salt.
Using a tablespoon to weigh out salt:
One tablespoon fits about 10 grams of salt. Again, this is an estimate but it is a convenient way to quickly weigh out salt and add it to the water.
Use a scale:
If you really want to be sure of the amount of salt you add to the boiling water, we recommend using a kitchen scale. With a scale you can easily and very precisely weigh out the amount of salt.
Is pasta cooked faster with salt?
On the Internet you read wild stories that pasta cooks faster when you use salt. In our opinion, this is not true and pasta does not cook faster by using salt.
Salt does have a small effect on the temperature of the boiling water and the so-called boiling point. But this is such a small effect that it is better to forget about it. You would have to add so much salt that the pasta would be inedible. So what will you gain from this in the end….
If you don’t have much time to cook the pasta, choose another kind of pasta. Each type of pasta has a different cooking time. For example, spaghetti has a cooking time of about 9 minutes and fettuccine has a cooking time of about 5 minutes. There is a 4-minute difference in cooking time between spaghetti and fettuccine. You can never save that 4 minutes of time by adding more salt!
So if you have little time to cook pasta, choose another type of pasta with a shorter cooking time!
How does salt affect the taste of pasta?
Salt is used all over the world to add flavor to dishes. The first mentions about the use of salt are about 6,000 years ago. So you can say that salt has played an important role in shaping our taste and the taste experience of certain dishes.
That salt and pasta go well together has become obvious to you by now. But what does salt actually do to pasta? Salt is a mineral extracted from seawater or salt mines. Cooking salt used to add more flavor to pasta during cooking consists mostly of sodium chloride. Quite a complicated term and that is why it is simply called table salt.
Salt has certain properties that allow it to enhance and influence certain flavors. One of those properties is that salt suppresses bitter taste. In general, a bitter taste is not always liked. This alone is one of the main reasons why salt is used all over the world.
In addition, salt enhances the sense of smell. And just eat a bite of pasta while holding your nose shut. It doesn’t taste like you’re used to. So by using salt you also enhance the taste experience by using your sense of smell extra.
Not to get too technical, you can simply say that salt suppresses the bitter taste and stimulates your sense of smell. This also makes pasta tastier.
Using salt with different types of pasta
You use salt while cooking pasta or, of course, through your homemade pasta sauce. But is there a difference in the type of pasta and the amount of salt you need for it?
In fact, there are many different shapes of pasta. By this we do not mean different types of pasta. In this paragraph we are talking about whole wheat pasta, spelt pasta, pasta with eggs and specialty pastas. Of course, these types of pasta are all different from the “normal” pasta we have talked about so far.
Using salt with whole wheat pasta:
Also whole wheat pasta, of course, you have to cook it in boiling water. Actually, when cooking whole wheat pasta, you can do everything the same as with normal pasta. Whole wheat pasta is made from the same type of wheat as regular pasta. Here, only the husk of the wheat grain is included in the flour and that’s why the pasta is “whole wheat
Therefore, if you want to cook whole wheat pasta until tender, you can just use the same amount of salt as normal pasta. Use about 10 grams of salt per 3 liters of water.
Using salt with pasta with eggs:
If you brought in extra flavorful pasta with eggs, you can also cook it with the same amount of salt. This pasta is also made from durum wheat, just like “normal” pasta. The only difference is that with pasta with eggs, eggs are kneaded through the dough.
Using salt with spelt pasta:
Even though this type of pasta is made from spelt wheat instead of durum wheat, the amount of salt is also the same with this type of pasta. Keep 10 grams of salt per 3 liters of water.
Using salt with specialty pastas:
To know how much salt to use with special pastas, it’s helpful to first clarify what we mean by special pastas. When we talk about special pastas, we mean pasta with a flavor through it. Think of pasta with basil, pasta with truffle, pasta with lemon and pasta with funghi. With these types, you can also use the same amount of salt.
Be careful when adding salt to black pasta, or rather, pasta with squid ink. Because this type of pasta uses squid ink, it already has a slightly salty taste.
So with this pasta, it does not hurt to halve the amount of salt. So with black pasta, use about 5 grams of salt per 3 liters of water. By the way, do you want to learn more about this delicious black pasta? In our blog ” What is black pasta and what can you do with it?” we tell you all about this delicious type of pasta.
Adjust the amount of salt to your pasta sauce
Finally, we want to tell you that our recommendation of 10 grams of salt per 3 liters of water is on average. Of course, a very important part of your pasta dish, if not the most important, is your pasta sauce.
Every pasta sauce is different. A pasta sauce with only vegetables needs a different amount of salt than a pasta sauce with fish or meat. There are also pasta dishes where only some herbs and some olive oil are used. Again, you have to use these differently.
What is important is to take some time beforehand to think about what kind of sauce you are going to make for your dish. Consider which ingredients already contain salt. For example, with spaghetti carbonara, there is already a lot of salt in the pancetta you use for it. As a result, you don’t need to add much salt to the sauce because the pancetta already gives it a nice salty taste.
Still, we advise you to always cook pasta with salt through the water. You can adjust the amount of salt you use depending on the pasta sauce you are going to use, but always use a little salt. It just makes your pasta taste better!