My buddy the line cook told me to stop oversalting pasta water and he was right

I always did the whole "salty like the sea" thing with a tablespoon per gallon, but he said that's way too much for most sauces. Tried half that amount last week and my tomato sauce actually tasted better, not saltier somehow. Has anyone else found a specific salt ratio that works for them?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim37328d ago

My line cook buddy told me the SAME thing and I argued with him for like ten minutes. I was all "but the pasta absorbs the salt" and he just stared at me. He said I was basically making salt noodles and then covering them in salty sauce. So I tried his way with a teaspoon per gallon and my carbonara came out PERFECT. The flavor was actually balanced instead of just PUNCHING you in the face with salt. Now I adjust based on the sauce too, less salt in the water if the sauce is already heavy on parmesan or anchovies. It's like I forgot that the sauce needs room to breathe or something.

logan70527d ago

Oh man that hits different! It's like how I used to crank my car AC on max to cool down instead of just rolling the windows down for a minute, turns out sometimes less really is more when you actually stop and think about the whole picture.

patriciap5225d ago

PUNCHING you in the face with salt" is exactly how I felt after undersalting my sauce to compensate for oversalted noodles.