To cut the crazy bills, families seem more and more ready for anything.
Also to question the recipe for cooking pasta handed down for generations.
This is how we talk about cooking without fire, which involves turning off the stove once the spaghetti or penne are thrown away, thanks to a post on Facebook shared by
the Nobel Prize in Physics, Giorgio Parisi
.
"Relata refero", Parisi puts his hands on, explaining that he only reports things reported by others.
But the system works, guarantees the
chemist and science writer Dario Bressanini
, who has dedicated a series of videos on Youtube to this topic, viewed by more than one and a half million people.
"Now everyone is talking about it, especially on Twitter and Facebook because Parisi, the Nobel Prize winner, talked about it and it reached an audience he had never reached before, but it's not a new thing. And I didn't invent it, yes has known for 200 years that it is not boiling water, seeing bubbles, cooking but simply the temperature of the water that transfers heat to pasta, boiled rice or a hard-boiled egg. we, by tradition, have always been used to keeping the boiling point, even not using the lid ", Bressanini told ANSA.
The method of pasta without fire involves boiling the water, adding the salt, throwing the pasta, stirring, waiting for it to boil again, then
turn off the heat, close the lid tightly and do not reopen it until the end of the cooking time. cooking
, which can be extended by one minute.
"It is something that periodically stands out, now because there is a crisis and the price of gas has skyrocketed. In my opinion when prices drop again, I hope soon, many people will forget it because the habit is hard to die ", explains Bressanini.
A plate of pasta in an archival image
"As long as there was no need to think about savings of this kind, people did not make those minimum tricks that can be used to save a little. Then it is not that the bill is halved. The savings that can be moderate, little or a lot , depending on the situation, but if something is useless it shouldn't be done, "says the scientist.
To save a little more he then indicates other possible measures such as using a kettle or-and here we are in the smell of "heresy", as he recognizes-heating the water with the microwave.
Also in these cases then you have to put the water in a pot, bring it back to the boil and salt it, then throw the pasta, mix and close with the lid until it is time to drain.
An estimate of what the savings could be with these tricks was made by
Italian pasta makers of Unione Italiana Food
.
The study talks about
"passive cooking"
, with the fire off and with the lid on after the first 2 minutes of traditional cooking, and calculates savings in energy and CO2 emissions of up to 47%.
According to the association, this method is adopted
only by one in 10 Italians
, while the healthy habits of using
less water
, 700 milliliters per 100 grams (as one in four would do) and always putting the lid on (nine out of ten).
The importance of this last aspect is also underlined by Parisi who writes on Facebook, sharing a post by Alessandro Busiri Vici: "
The most important thing is to always keep the lid on
, the heat is lost a lot by evaporation. After the pasta boils I I put the gas to the minimum, minimum, so that it boils very low without consuming gas ".
"You can also try to turn it off", adds the Nobel, "obviously in this way it consumes even less and I think the pasta cooks anyway. After all, pasta cooks well even in the mountains with the water boiling at 90 degrees. The lid is essential. "