Pasta problems

Why do you put salt in the water before you boil pasta?

I know it obviously adds flavor, but I thought it also was supposed to help keep the water from getting all foamy…. I’ve made a ton of pasta, in Italy we put olive oil in the water and salt…. I still do this, but I’m a little iffy on the salt motive.

Yesterday I used a smaller pot than I usually do so I was hyper aware as to the boiling level of the water and the foam levels. I added salt, it still got all foamy, so I kept adding salt, it didn’t work. I wasn’t worried about the pasta getting too salty because I was making pasta al’pesto Genovese. I love pesto, which really translates to “paste” every region of Italy has their signature sauce, bread, cheese, etc. So in Italy you never just say “pesto”, that’s not enough information. It’s like saying “cheese” when you really mean the hard cheese that comes from the city of Parma…. Which we of course call parmesan Or just saying “meat” when you actually mean martadella, which for some reason we call by the city that it is made in, Bologna.

Ok, where was I, salt…

So I wasn’t worried about too much salt because pesto Genovese can use a little salt. So I’m annoyed with my foaming little pot of water, giving up adding any more salt, pull the pesto out, because it is far too involved to make from scratch. I made it from scratch just once, but only because my missionary companion was actually from Genova and knew how to do it right.

I open up the pre-made pesto right before it’s time to strain the pasta, and there’s a big chunk of mold. My stomach does a little flip flop because I almost didn’t see the mini science experiment and that would’ve been just wrong, but the bigger issue is now I don’t have time to make a sauce because the pasta is already al dente and I hate sticky pasta. (Eat spaghetti every day for two years and you’ll get a little picky.) So the only sauce in the cupboard is an alfredo sauce, and I have to use it without time to do something to it to make it taste less like store bought sauce. It wasn’t the brand Ragu, mainly I wont buy Ragu because Ragu translates to “meat sauce” and if you’re going to name your company “meat sauce” you shouldn’t bottle alfredo. Just like if you are trying to act all gourmet and European when you open your sandwich shop, Don’t put “Pannini Sandwiches” at the top of the menu.. pannini is the word for sandwich in Italian, so you just wrote “Sandwich sandwiches” on your menu and proved to everyone that you might call yourself a bistro, but you’re just a dumb sandwich shop, and don’t just choose some random Italian word like “Prego” for your sauce, Prego just translates to “you’re welcome” Why call your sauce company “you’re welcome” that makes no sense.…

ok I got side tracked again…. Pesto Genovese is a pretty strong flavor, so it’s good all by itself, a meal all alone. But since my pesto is now residing head first in my garbage can, I don’t have a meal all by itself. I have some salty penne with beige store bought alfredo sauce and some beige shredded parmesan and to drink we had a bottle of sparkling Martenelli’s left over from New year’s… it’s beige. It was a monochromatic salt fest of an evening.