Giada De Laurentiis' Secret To Boiling Salty Pasta Comes From The Ocean
You've heard of the farm-to-fork movement, but what about sea-to-stock pot? That's exactly what celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis tried while traveling in Italy. To cook pasta aboard a sailboat, as seen on her TikTok account, she used half a pot of water scooped directly from the ocean, along with half a pot of drinking water.
It may seem like a novel way to season pasta water (which probably needs more salt than you thought), but it's a trend that's been spreading throughout restaurants. In fact, several companies are now selling filtered ocean water for cooking, claiming that it contains less sodium chloride than dehydrated sea salt while adding more nutrients to our diets. Ladling it straight out of the ocean, though, poses some challenges.
For starters, it's hard to say how much salt you're getting. Sea water contains dissolved salts and minerals, and the amount of salt it contains can vary from one spot to another. Meanwhile, the guidelines for how much salt you should add to cooking water suggest 1 teaspoon per gallon. If you dip a pot into the ocean without measuring, the math gets fuzzy. Too much salt? Too little? Who knows!
Dip it or ditch it?
The other big issue is water safety. Even fresh water needs to be boiled for at least a minute before it's safe to drink. This helps kill the microorganisms that can make people sick. What boiling can't do is remove heavy metals, chemicals, and other particles like microplastics or pieces of plants or animals. Of course, you won't be drinking the seawater because taking in that much salt water is dangerous for human health, but even if you strain it out of the pot after cooking, unwanted substances could come in contact with your food.
There's definitely something to be appreciated about the romance of having meals on a sailboat. However, for safety's sake (and an easier way to control your cooking), you might want to bring your own water. Or better yet, prepare your meals ahead of time and spend more time relaxing on the boat.