A pasta brand promotes passive cooking

The technique involves turning the stove off after water has boiled to save energy

Spotted: Over half of manmade black carbon emissions come from household combustion, and that includes home cooking. The worst offender is the gas stove, which has been shown to release significant volumes of methane, but all cooking contributes to household energy usage. In the face of worrying rises in energy prices and the general cost of living, Italian pasta brand Barilla has reimagined an old cooking technique for modern times.

Called passive cooking, the technique involves cooking food with the stove turned off. Focusing on making the perfect pasta, the company has also created a smart device called The Passive Cooker that sends alerts to users at each stage of the process to make passive cooking even easier.

Made from biodegradable bioplastic, the device sits on top of a pot on the stove. When the water boils, the device sends an alert to put the pasta in the water. After boiling the pasta for two minutes, another alarm sounds, indicating that it is time to turn off the stove. Doing so saves electricity and expenditure on energy.

In addition, Barilla has developed a cooking guide for each type of pasta and made the design of the timing device open-source so that anyone with access to a 3D printer can make one. The batteries the device uses are also more sustainable than most, and an accompanying WhatsApp chatbot provides in-the-moment guidance and support.

Finding ways to reduce energy consumption at home is becoming increasingly important, particularly in terms of cooking. Among the innovations that Springwise has spotted are efficient home cooking devices to replace microwaves, and safer, cleaner cookstoves.

Written By: Keely Khoury