Italian Giorgio Parisi, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics, argued that cooking pasta with the fire turned off consumes less energy; this is a measure that can be useful to save money in the current energy crisis.

In a post on Facebook, Parisi explains that when the water starts to boil, you can add the pasta and wait two minutes, then turn off the gas and continue cooking passively.

The scientist from the Sapienza University of Rome calculated that at least eight minutes of energy consumption were saved.

“The most important thing is to keep the lid open, a lot of heat is lost through evaporation. After boiling the pasta, I set the gas to a minimum so that it boils very little without consuming it. You can also try disabling it as suggested in this post, which is not mine, but by Alessandro Buisi Vici, which I simply republished. Obviously, less gas is consumed this way and the pasta is cooked in the same way,” he comments.

The debate about how to cook pasta without consuming energy is not new, as a few months ago the Unione Italiana Food association, which represents pasta producers, suggested that closing the lid of the pot during boiling speeds up the cooking process. It saves up to 6% of energy and CO2 emissions.

The association explained that after boiling for two minutes, turning off the fire and leaving the lid open saves up to 47% of energy and CO2 emissions.

“With an average consumption of 23.5 kg of pasta per capita, every Italian will save 44.6 kilowatt hours, 13.2 kilos of CO2 emissions and 69 liters of water per year,” he said.