Lola Tip: boiling water and the sunday paper

Boiling: Just Salt and Water? What you need to know! 

LOL! I know...how fascinating! What next...watching jell-o set?

You’ve heard it many times – “I can’t even boil water”. Jokes aside there are some things to keep in mind when using boiling water to cook food. 

Like - When do you salt the water? 

Water boils at 212⁰ Fahrenheit, 100⁰ Celsius; give or take based on sea level. (insert eye roll, cold sweat 9^th grade science memory) 

Okay-Okay the point…

Salt water boils at a lower temperature. Well that gives me an idea…I’ll add salt to the water and then I can add my pasta sooner! Insert slow motion…Nooooooooooo…

The time to salt pasta water or any water for that matter is once the water starts boiling. That way you get the maximum heat and the flavor from the salt!

See now - that wasn’t so painful.

Wait! But how do you speed up the heating of the water…it takes soooo looong! you say...

Quick Quick Boil the Water Already - We want PASTA!
Try this:

1. Use the Highest Heat (goes without saying – but I did)
2. Pot Size…only use the size pot you need more water takes more time to heat.
3. A Lid! Cover the pot. Many Sunday dinners took place at my grandma, Mary Plati Cefali Servitto's house. She swore that covering the pot with newspaper made it boil faster. And it did- what?! It did! An excellent and fearless cook, my grandma was 97 when she passed – the house never burnt down and there were no signs of ink poisoning. So I fully support this use of the Sunday paper – after all based on the content of modern day newspapers I think my grandmother was ahead of her time and may have had the best use for the Sunday newspaper – speeding up the pasta water!
   Miss & Love you grandma - XOX!