Terry S's Profile

@ ebenko and megkem: of course it's salty - 1/2 tsp of salt is about 1200 mg of sodium, which is HALF of the total daily maximum intake for a healthy adult as recommended by the American Heart Association and the Mayo Clinic, and then you have the 175 to 350 mg of sodium in the cheese, depending on whether you use 1/4 or 1/2 cup (unless it's low fat or fat-free cheese, and then it'll have about twice as much sodium, because when they cut the fat in a food item, they pile on the sodium or the sugar, or both). That's just too much for such a small amount of pasta and water.

I'd say skip the salt when preparing it; you can always add some at the end if you really feel it needs any. And be careful with the chili as well, since that tends to be extremely heavy on the sodium when it's the canned or packaged type. Even when homemade you have to watch it - Emeril's essences range from about 243 to 296 mg of sodium per 1/2 tsp (so they're better than plain salt, plus tastier; you just have to watch how much you're using in the recipe), and only the Italian essence seems to be salt-free, but I'd check the label and make sure they haven't changed them.