Saving Water and Energy...with Pasta!

An article by Harold McGee in the food section of the NYT describes a novel, if somewhat obvious idea for saving water and energy: cook your pasta in less water. According to the article, cooking pasta in less water can save time, millions of gallons of water and the equivalent of up to 500 thousand barrels of oil, or $20 million.

Most Italian cookbooks and pasta boxes recommend heating 4 to 6 quarts to a rolling boil then adding your pound of pasta. After a little experimenting, Mr. McGee found that he could cook pasta just as tasty by placing it in 2 quarts of cool water and bringing the water and pasta to a boil together. Not only does this method save 2 to 4 quarts of water each time you cook pasta, but the author noted that he didn’t have to leave his stove on nearly as long, saving significant amounts of direct energy (the author didn’t note the energy saved from less water pumped or wastewater treated).

I was drawn to this article because it provides numbers for how much energy could be saved, but keep in mind that these findings are only Mr. McGee’s estimations and should not be used definitively. In fact, it seems like this article might be underestimating the water and energy that can be saved by using less water to cook your pasta. McGee doesn't mention what assumptions he uses in his calculations but he does state that "Americans eat something like a billion pounds of pasta each year." My quick research found that the USDA estimates dry pasta consumption in 2000 to be around 4.5 billion pounds a year, which means that McGee's estimates could be as little as a quarter of the actual water and energy savings potential.

It will be interesting to see if a more thorough examination of the amount of energy and water that could be saved by cooking your pasta in less water. In the meantime, this concept seems logical and even if the potential energy savings aren’t exactly 500,000 barrels of oil. We eat billions of pounds of pasta each year and I have no doubt that a lot of water and energy can be saved.

Check out the article hear: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/dining/25curi.html.