Why Pasta with Potatoes and Gorgonzola Turned Out Too Salty

Question

Have had enormous success with Milk Street recipes and have made it my go-to recipe source since subscribing. This is the first time I feel like I have noticed a typo in the recipe.
2 Tbs salt for 2 quarts water felt like twice as much salt as was needed. Still a 1/2 tsp salt and 3 Tbs salted butter to go after that, but it felt like the first boiling step was where the real saltiness happened.
Followed the recipe to a T, so I'm not sure what could've gone wrong on my end. I guess it's not really a question, just wanted to bring it to your attention!

Lynn Clark · Accepted Answer

Hi Mark - Generally, we cook pasta in 4 quarts water with 2 tablespoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt. This ratio creates starchy water suitable for most sauces. But some pastas, particularly ones with cream- or cheese-based sauces or ones where we really want to thicken the sauce, require particularly starchy water to prevent them from breaking. In those cases, we cook in just 2 quarts water and 1 table­spoon salt to concentrate the starches. For this recipe, Pasta with Potatoes, Gorgonzola, and Fried Sage, we are cooking both potatoes and pasta in the same water which is why we called for 2 tablespoons of salt. Potatoes are bland and need the seasoning as well. As Maureen mentioned, if you are using table salt or Morton's kosher salt (which has a finer grain) you should reduce the amount of salt by exactly half for table salt and just over half for Morton's kosher.  I hope this helps! Best, Lynn C.

Why Pasta with Potatoes and Gorgonzola Turned Out Too Salty

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