Testing Different Salt Levels for Pasta
Setting up this test was straightforward.
Cook pasta in several pots with different salt concentrations, taste them all, see which one wins. The only question was which percentages to test.
I dug through Italian cookbooks and online sources. Paul Bertolli’s Cooking by Hand recommends 5 teaspoons per gallon. Some internet sources say 1 tablespoon per quart; others say 1 tablespoon for two quarts. But what do these actually mean in percentages?
Salt measurements are annoying because different types – kosher, fine sea, coarse sea, table – have different densities. A tablespoon of fine sea salt contains different amounts of actual sodium chloride than a tablespoon of kosher. Even two brands of the same type, like Morton and Diamond Crystal kosher, aren’t equivalent. Weight is the only way to make this work for testing.
I used fine sea salt since a lot of Italian cooking experts recommend it. I weighed out teaspoons on a jeweler’s scale and converted everything to liters. Turns out Bertolli was suggesting about 0.8% salt by weight, or 8 grams per liter. The one-tablespoon-per-two-quarts crowd was at 0.95%, or 9.5 grams per liter. The one-tablespoon-per-quart people were pushing for roughly 1.8%, or 18 grams per liter.
And that “salty as the sea” rule that gets repeated everywhere? Seawater averages 3.5% salt by weight. That’s 35 grams of salt per liter.
I cooked dried penne in water at these salt levels (sea salt/liter)
0.5% – ~3/4 tsp
1% – ~1 1/2 tsps
2% – ~1 tbsp
3% – ~1 1/2 tbsps
3.5% – ~2 tbsps
Let me save you some trouble right now: never make your pasta water as salty as the ocean. That advice is absolute garbage. The pasta is disgusting and inedible. And 3% is also way too salty.
Below that threshold, the other options can work depending on your salt preferences. For me, 2% was the absolute maximum I’d tolerate. The pasta tasted well-seasoned but also noticeably, aggressively salty.
1% – right around what Bertolli suggests – was perfect for my taste. Properly seasoned without tasting specifically salty. People who are more salt-sensitive might prefer 0.5%, which still gets the job done. I tried a few batches below 0.5% and they all tasted underseasoned.
Okay, So How Much Salt to Use
I prefer 1%.
2% might work if you really love salt, but it’s dangerously close to crossing into too-salty territory. If your sauce and cheese are already salty, or if you’re using pasta water to finish the dish and concentrating the salt as the water evaporates, 2% could easily push you over the edge. Be careful.
Here are approximate volume conversions for common salt types:
Salt per liter of water at 0.5% salinity:
- Fine sea salt: 3/4 teaspoon
- Table salt: 3/4 teaspoon
- Morton coarse kosher: 1 teaspoon
- Diamond Crystal kosher: 1 1/2 teaspoons
Salt per liter of water at 1% salinity:
- Fine sea salt: 1 1/2 teaspoons
- Table salt: 1 1/2 teaspoons
- Morton coarse kosher: 2 teaspoons
- Diamond Crystal kosher: 1 tablespoon
Salt per liter of water at 2% salinity:
- Fine sea salt: 1 tablespoon
- Table salt: 1 tablespoon
- Morton coarse kosher: 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon
- Diamond Crystal kosher: 2 tablespoons
And I’ll say it one more time: don’t salt your pasta water like the ocean. That’s disgusting.
