Cooking Secrets: Great Tasting Pasta

Apr 3, 2011 by M. Velez

Got bland pasta? It shouldn’t be! Pasta should taste great just by itself. So what is the secret to great tasting pasta? It’s definitely not the sauce, but a little condiment known as salt.

If you’ve ever looked on the back of a pasta box for cooking instructions, it’ll say something like “add salt to taste”. Surprisingly, few people actually understand what this means.

If you sprinkle just a little salt in two cups of water, what will your water taste like? Will you be able to “taste” the salt? If you can’t taste the salt, guess what? Your pasta won’t either. Salt serves a function. It brings out the natural flavor in food, but you have to add enough for it to make a difference.

So, if you want great tasting pasta, you’re gonna have to add enough salt to your water for your pasta to absorb. And that my friend is the secret!