Common Cooking Mistakes: #14: Not Salting Pasta Water
Why is it that pasta dishes always taste so much better when you eat them out in an Italian restaurant? There is a simple answer, but it's not that a chef made the sauce. It's that any chef worth their salt will salt the water they boil the pasta in. And while that may seem like a fussy step, it's terribly important. Pasta is a dry food that needs rehydrating as it cooks, that is in boiling water. And it will absorb whatever flavor is in the water. IF you add nothing your pasta gets nothing to enhance its taste. But the simple addition of a small handful of salt to pot of water can make bland pasta taste so incredible just a little garlic and or olive oil is all you need for an incredible dinner. And we've heard the complaints... "but the water takes longer to boil if it's salted." Look, you're not boiling seawater, just a few tbs of salt to a pot of water and if it adds a minute to the time it takes that pot to boil then we think that's a minute quite well spent.