Premium pasta brand Barilla is promoting Passive Cooking, an ancient cooking method that reduces energy usage and CO2 emissions by 80%, and consequently saves money. Instead of boiling pasta without a lid for 10 minutes, pasta is boiled with a lid for two minutes before it’s left to soak in the hot water until it’s al dente.
Interestingly, while Barilla has developed the Passive Cooker, companion app, and timing chart for its various pasta products in-house, it’s not releasing the device as a commercial product; instead, it’s releasing it under an open source license.
The revolutionary, open source Passive Cooker was designed by the brand to be simply clipped onto a cooking pot lid where it can sync up to users’ smartphone to start the process. Once the device detects boiling water, the pasta should be added and after two minutes, the device prompts users to turn off the stove. From then, the pot uses residual heat to finish cooking the pasta to perfection, with the app keeping an eye on cooking time. Adding to its sustainable qualities, the Passive Cooker comes built with biodegradable materials and eco-batteries.
“We wanted to make this project open source so everyone can make their copy and even improve it if they want to,” the company explains. “If you are a maker, you can download all the materials to print out your Passive Cooker [and] download the instructions to correctly assemble the device.”
ADD WORKGROUP