What to do with an exceptionally salty pasta
...More like a horribly, dreadfully salty, inedible pasta.
Well I wouldn't be writing this in the first place if I had more cooking experience, or if I had controlled my salt-sprinkling frenzy. I initially tasted my sauce and felt that it lacked a bit of salt. But since I was cooking a large portion for 10 people that night, I figured I needed to add around three spoonfuls more of salt. And then, um, maybe a little bit more. The result: an extra salty pasta sauce nightmare-come-true.
All efforts failed as I tried to salvage the concoction on its deathbed. I added some water, cream, sugar, more spices... I did what I could. But it was too late.
Since I didn't want that whole tub of pasta to go to waste, I still served it to my friends, despite my conscience begging, pleeeeading me not to. As I placed the dish on the table, the aroma smelled wonderful and mouth-watering. It looked like what I had intended it to be: yummy penne pasta with ground beef, sausage, and mushrooms in tomato sauce. My friends were very excited to dig in, but I tried to warn them and said, "It's too salty!" But since it was their first time to try my cooking, my friends had better expectations of my skills and replied, "It couldn't be that bad." As I watch my friends take a bite in slow motion, I felt like an accomplice of a murderer in a horror movie scene, about to poison his victims. I cried, "No, pasta, noooo!"
My friends' faces right before taking a bite: mouth open, lips curving upward, and eyes half-closed.
Their faces right after taking a bite: mouth closed, lips curving downward, and eyes wide open.
The its-so-salty-I'm-gonna-die moment was so traumatic for me, and probably more so for my friends, that it didn't matter to me that the other dishes I served were not bad at all. They tried to console me by telling me it was delicious...except for the salty part. Yeah, whatever. This was unacceptably inedible. The killer saline taste and the image of my friends' faces lingered vividly in my mind and sick stomach.
And so I was left with the same tub of pasta, barely touched. Do I throw it all away? What a waste, I thought. So I kept it in the fridge. I went to bed, tossing and turning, still disturbed by the whole incident.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a light bulb lit. Ting!
The next morning, I poured lots of water and made it into soup.
I shall never be bothered by the salty pasta monster ever again.
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