Nobel Prize-winning physicist urges Italians to cook pasta with the stove off to save 8 minutes of gas and reduce soaring energy bills

• Expensive energy bills have pushed Italians to cook pasta with the stove switched off.
• Some chefs reportedly said pasta "will cook really badly" and turn sticky if the heat is turned off.

Some Italians are cooking their beloved pasta with the stove turned off to limit the amount of gas they use in the hope of reducing expensive energy bills.

Normally, the heat is kept at a constant high temperature when the pasta and water are in the pan on the stove.

Giorgio Parisi, an Italian Nobel Prize winner in physics, recently wrote in a Facebook post that pasta can be cooked on a low heat once the water in the pan reaches boiling point. The trick is to always keep the lid on the pan, Parisi said. This method consumes less gas, but still cooks the pasta, he added.

Parisi reshared a post from Alessandro Busiri Vici, described by the Financial Times as a well-known architect, who said the stove can be switched off completely after the water has boiled. The pasta will cook in the pan with a lid on and should be left for an extra minute until it's ready. Busiri Vici said this approach can save at least eight minutes of gas.

The Unione Italiane Food, a food association, also suggested "passive cooking," or turning the heat off while cooking, to save up to 47% of energy and carbon dioxide emissions. Putting a lid on the pot while boiling liquids and using the right amount of water also makes a difference, the association said.

However, some Italian chefs were not satisfied with the advice.

Wasfi Mesieha, a chef at an Italian restaurant in Rome, told Euronews that the pasta will continue to cook if the flame is turned off, but "it will cook really badly."

Chef Vincenzo Feola told Deutsche Welle when the pasta is cooked without the stove on, it doesn't have the right consistency, becomes sticky, and tastes overcooked.

Higher energy costs come at a time when Europe is grappling with an energy crisis after Russia choked supply to the continent in response to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow due to the Ukraine war.

European governments and some businesses have since implemented various measures to try to reduce power consumption ahead of winter.

British people have got rid of their $29,000 vintage stoves to combat surging energy costs, Bloomberg reported, while German bakeries have switched the lights off in protest of sky-high bills.