One of my favorite authors, Harold McGee, is a columist in the New York Times and the writer of a feature called The Curious Cook. Recently, he wrote an article regarding how much water is needed to cook pasta.  Amazingly, aside from the fact that you may not need as much water as you think, he revealed an interesting way to save energy. First, he determined that you can cook a pound of pasta with just a couple of cups of water, not the 4-6 quarts as the spaghetti box recommends. Secondly, you can start cooking your pasta right from the box starting in cold water.  So, what's the significance of this? Collectively, as a pasta loving nation, we could save 10s of thousands of gallons of water by reducing the amount in the pot and since we don't have as much water to heat we could save potentially 250,000 to 500,000 barrels of oil a year. Go figure. Read the full article HERE.