Question for the cooks here

[Mik]

Do you salt your pasta water? So many books say you should, but all I have ever found was it just makes the pasta saltier, not more flavorful.

What says the group?

It occurred to me this evening, as MFR is out and I'm making a simple Rao's marinara with frozen meatballs and bucatini.

[jon-nyc]

Never. I usually take advantage of every opportunity not to add salt to a recipe. There’s always something. Else in the recipe that will be more than salty enough. In this case the pasta sauce.

[Mik]

They say salt enhances other flavors. I've not found that to be the case, and I avoid it whenever possible. The amount you season with at table (not pastas) is minimal and easily controllable.

[George K]

Nope. I don't.

[Aqua Letifer]

@jon-nyc said in Question for the cooks here:

Never. I usually take advantage of every opportunity not to add salt to a recipe. There’s always something. Else in the recipe that will be more than salty enough. In this case the pasta sauce.

Same.

[Horace]

I love salt and often err on that side. I do salt the water.

I also often think of the chef, when I add salt at the table, before tasting the food. I don’t want to insult.

[Catseye3]

Agreed with everything (except Horace).

As for salt enhancing other flavors, I've never found that to be true. If anything, it obscures them.

Also, Marthy (Stewart) taught me not to add oil to the pasta cooking water; it just causes the sauce to slide off the pasta. A coupla stirs early on will unstick the pasta readily enough.

[Mik]

Me too, Cats.

[Jolly]

No salt. Do add a splash of olive oil.

[Axtremus]

Not adding salt on my own.

If salt is needed, the manufacturer should have added it already or include on the box the instruction to add it.

[89th]

How funny. We had pasta tonight too, normally I add salt to the boiling water, my wife doesn’t. Honestly I can’t tell the difference.

[Copper]

Adding salt increases the boiling point.

[jodi]

I salt the water - guess I never thought about not doing it, I add very little salt to our food when I cook. I also put in a splash of olive oil. We eat pasta at least once a week and always make the sauce from scratch, (olive oil, canned diced tomatoes, garlic, basil and red pepper flakes for the basic sauce, sometimes adding one or more of the following - cooked Italian sausage/onions/mushrooms/peppers). I don’t add salt to the sauce. But I do put a good amount of shredded Pecorino Romano (bought in big wedges from costco) on my pasta - and it’s pretty salty.

[Axtremus]

About adding olive oil, I have a hypothesis that I have not tested rigorously. I believe adding olive oil early on will make the pasta less absorbent of the sauce/seasoning that will be added later. So even if I want to add olive oil, I would add it later, after I mix the sauce in, or add the oil into the sauce instead.

[jon-nyc]

@jodi Cheese is probably my biggest remaining sources of sodium.

I cook most things from scratch, so I usually avoid the sodium bombs in the center aisles of the grocery store. But the saltiest ingredient out there is cheese. They make low fat versions but no low sodium versions. In fact the low fat versions are usually higher in sodium. It’s a shame, it’s not like I’m going to make my own cheese.

[Mik]

That's true, and I also shop the perimeter of the store. Cheese does have a high sodium content, but you usually don't use a lot of it in pastas. I don't anyway - it's just a touch at serving for flavor, except maybe carbonara. A little blue cheese sprinkled sparingly on salad or vegetables give a lot of flavor for very little sodium.

[xenon]

I salt the water to the point of making it a broth, not sea water.

I often use a bit of pasta water to combine the pasta with the sauce. Most helpful for things like pesto.

[Mik]

I do that too. The extracted starch works well.