Salted Water

This week my Nutrition students made pasta with homemade fresh tomato sauce.  I get such satisfaction from watching teenagers in the kitchen having so much fun while working with food.  Can you believe that some of them had never boiled water before?! Crazy!  I cannot wait to have little kiddies running around my house so I can get them in an apron.  Cooking with kids can be so much fun.  I digress...

Back to the boiling water.  A lot of student asked "where is the salt?", to which I responded "This is a low sodium recipe, no salt needed".  A few students were confused because they were taught at home to cook pasta in salted water.  This is not something I do in my own kitchen at home and told them it wasn't necessary.  I spent the rest of the day wondering if I had missing a step all these years when I cooked pasta.  I spent some time doing some reading and have found that there aren't any benefits of adding salt. This is what I dug up

 Myths about salting your pasta water

• It makes pasta less sticky
• Enhances the flavour of the pasta
• Makes the water boil faster
• Makes the water hotter

Facts about salting your pasta water

• costs you more money to add salt
• Increases sodium in your food
• an extra step

There you have it folks, breaking news. Quick, call all of your friends...