The Nobel laureate in physics offers advice
Cooking pasta in the energy crisis? Italy debates pasta water
Rome. Spaghetti, fusilli, penne, linguine, rigatoni, orecchiette, pappardelle: countless types of pasta are icons of Italian cuisine and as a “primo” (starter) it is impossible to imagine a good meal in Belpaese without them. But now the energy crisis has also reached the pasta we love so much: their preparation consumes significant amounts of gas or electricity, because a relatively large amount of water has to be boiled. And so, for several weeks, Italians have been bombarded daily from newspapers and television by more or less competent experts with more or less sensible advice on how to save money on cooking pasta.
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Giorgio Parisi, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics last year, has recently joined the discussion. His advice: Bring the water to a boil in the pan, add the pasta, put the lid on – and then turn off the stove immediately or after two minutes. “This saves gas or electricity for at least eight minutes!” tweeted the scientist from Rome’s La Sapienza University. Because the temperature of the water is gradually dropping, the pasta just needs to stay in the pan for about a minute longer, Parisi points out. Overall, energy savings are up to 47 percent – with corresponding positive effects on your gas or electricity bill. This is called “passive cooking” by the corresponding technical term.
Top chefs wrinkle their noses
The Nobel Prize winner received support from renowned chemist and science journalist Dario Bressanini: “It has been known for 200 years that it is not the boiling of water and the rising of bubbles that are important for the cooking process, but the temperature. of water: pasta – or rice – absorbs water at 80 degrees.” This may be “surprising” because people are traditionally used to always keep the water boiling and even remove the lid. Even if the water isn’t boiling, there’s no danger of the pasta clumping together—at least not if you’re using good quality pasta made from “grano duro” (hard wheat). In any case, the quality of the pasta does not suffer.
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Of course, some top chefs see things differently. Renowned chef Antonello Colonna—he was also head chef at Palazzo Chigi, the seat of the Italian prime minister—doesn’t think much of Paris’s suggestion: With this method, the pasta would no longer be truly “al dente.” “, but “rubber”, explained Colonna and mentioned his negative experiences. Colonna emphasized that everyone should cook at home in a way that suits his taste and above all his wallet. Because of the disadvantages in consistency and taste , the Parisi method is inappropriate in gastronomy.
The government welcomes the pasta proposal
It has not yet been decided who is right in the pasta dispute. In any case, in Italy, where food has always been an absolute first-hand topic, (almost) nothing else has been discussed for days. However, the thought of simply letting pasta cook in non-boiling water seems to irritate many amateur cooks. “I can eat spaghetti raw right away, then I save 100 percent of energy,” was a sarcastic comment on social networks.
But on Tuesday, the government also spoke out in favor of Parisi’s method: Minister for Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani, a physicist like Parisi, also recommends turning off the stove or at least turning it down to a minimum after putting pasta in boiling water. The advice will be part of a national awareness campaign in which the government will provide advice on how to voluntarily reduce energy consumption from September.
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The measures also include shorter and colder showers, full loading of the washing machine and dishwasher, replacing old and inefficient household appliances with modern machines, not having TVs and set-top boxes on standby and much more. But all this is much less talkative in Italy than pasta in non-boiling water.