Don't Dump Out That Pasta Water! Use It In Your Sauce Instead

The days of draining your pasta by pouring all your cooked noodles and boiling water through a colander and down the sink are over. This could even be described as preparing your pasta "the old-fashioned way." More and more, professional chefs and experts have taught us that saving some pasta water to mix into your sauce produces superior results in most dishes. Of course, there are some recipes in which the addition of pasta water is crucial, such as the deceptively difficult cacio e pepe and spaghetti carbonara, but even your standard penne with marinara can benefit from a small drizzle.

Stirring pasta water into your sauce makes for a silky coating that plain water alone just can't achieve. When you cook your dried pasta in boiling water, the starch from the noodles oozes out, creating cloudy water. This starch helps coat your pasta with whatever kind of sauce you serve, particularly thicker ones. For example, when you dollop fresh pesto sauce over a mound of just-out-of-the-water farfalle and give it a stir, it's sure to coat the pasta decently. However, when you add some hot pasta water to the mix, any stray clumps of pesto will effortlessly dissolve into the sauce, which gets silky and beautifully coats the surface of your pasta. And, because the water contains starch and (presumably) salt, the sauce shouldn't taste watered down at all.

Don't assume that your pasta water is only good for the dish you're prepping in the moment. All that water you may otherwise pour down the drain can be saved and used for a slew of culinary tasks. For starters, you probably know that leftover pasta the next day isn't the same as when it's fresh from the pot. Much of this has to do with the fact that the pasta absorbs a lot of the moisture it sits in. By the time you're ready for leftovers, the pasta is dry, especially after reheating. To bring it back to life, save some of your pasta water in a jar and store it in the refrigerator. Pour some into your noodle dish when you warm it up — the water creates a surprisingly cohesive sauce, yet again!

But you can think outside the bucatini box, as well. Pasta water works wonders in homemade bread as the starch helps dough loaves rise beautifully. It's also a great substitute for broth in recipes. So, whether you're making a soup, a pot of beans, or even a finishing sauce, pasta water can become your new best kitchen buddy. Just note that If you know you won't use it right away, store it in the freezer instead.