Patent ID: 6896925

Claim:
A method of cooking pasta comprising: i. preparing a cooking water composition by adding an amount of a salt-containing composition comprising water soluble salts containing calcium, magnesium, zinc and copper cations to a sufficient amount of water to produce said cooking water composition wherein the concentration of calcium cations in said cooking water composition ranges from about 5 mg/L to about 200 mg/L, the concentration of magnesium cations in said cooking water composition ranges from about 5 mg/L to about 100 mg/L, the concentration of zinc cations in said cooking water composition ranges from about 0.05 to about 0.50 mg/L; and the concentration of copper cations in said cooking water composition ranges from about 0.01 mg/L to about 0.30 mg/L; ii. heating said cooking water composition to cooking temperature; iii. adding uncooked pasta to said heated composition of step ii for a time sufficient to cook said pasta; and iv. removing said pasta from said heated composition.