What do the Italians add to the water in which they boil the pasta!

If you’ve eaten pasta in Italy, then you’ll probably agree that, try as we might, we can rarely replicate this perfection at home. The truth is that the old Italian recipes have a “golden rule” that is the same in all regions, namely that the water must always be “as salty as the sea”. And yes, this really is the secret to making great pasta.

Why do Italians put salt in their water?

Salting the water is the first and perhaps the most important step to get great pasta. If you’ve ever skipped this step, you may have noticed that the final dish wasn’t perfect.

Scientifically speaking, there is only one good reason to salt pasta water – to season the pasta evenly from the inside out.

In culinary school, trainee chefs are taught to season their dish bit by bit, from step one – it’s the only way to create gradual, more complex flavors.

How much salt?

Most experts recommend one tablespoon of salt for every pound of dry pasta. Test the water after the salt dissolves – it should taste salty, but not too salty.

That’s how we know we’ve chosen the best pasta

Ruxandra Pleșea, doctor specializing in diabetes, nutritional and metabolic diseases, explained how we can turn pasta into a healthy food.

If you are curious to know if you have chosen the best pasta, the doctor has revealed what you should pay attention to.

“Pasta, even white pasta, but especially whole pasta, does not have a high glycemic index. If we know how to choose them – some durum wheat pasta or some whole wheat pasta – it’s even better.

If we combine them at a meal with the right food, pasta becomes a really healthy food. A healthy version is like this: we reduce the amount of pasta and put a lot of vegetables.

In this way, we get a meal full of nutrients. On top we can put either cheese, salmon, or meat, cold-pressed olive oil, lots of dried oregano. This way we get an extraordinarily well-balanced product”, said doctor Ruxandra Pleșea on Antena 1.

“Healthy lifestyle includes carbohydrates, the slower… the better. We find them in wholemeal pasta associated with vegetables and proteins. The evil of carbohydrates is lessened if we add protein, a little vegetable fat – car oil or avocado – and vegetables to a meal. This is how we build a balanced meal”, said Dr. Ruxandra Pleșea la Antenna 1.