For making cold pasta, use 4 tablespoons of salt for every 4 quarts of water. You can really taste the salt on the pasta because of this so when making the dressing (olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper), consider reducing the salt to 1/4th teaspoon rather than a 1/2 teaspoon. You can then add more if needed once the salad is completely mixed together. I didn't do this and I loved how it turned out with a 1/2 teaspoon salt, but I tend to like things more salty than most. I also added more sweet strawberries to counter the salt.