The Salt

The addition of salt to the pasta cooking water is an essential step that must not be omitted. When pasta is coocked in unsalted water no matter how flavorful the sauce, the dressed pasta will be certain to have a bland taste.
1. Use a coarse grain or flaked salt with no additives.Coarse or flaked salt will dissolve more quickly than a fine grain salt.
2. I always use coarse grain sea salt or kosher salt. The quality of salt does matter, as different salts have different flavours and levels of saltiness.
3. Add salt to the boiling water 1 to 2 minutes before the pasta to give the salt time to dissolve.
4. When cooking l lb (500g) dried pasta, add about 1 1/2  tbsp kosher salt to 4 to 5 litres (4 to 5 quarts) of boiling water.