It is dinner time and you are having pasta. First of all, you have cooked your pasta. If you are like most of us, you dump the cooked pasta into a colander with the water. That colander probably sits in the sink and the pasta water goes down the drain.
That is a pretty common scenario.
But, wait. Not so fast. I know when you look into the pan of boiling pasta, the water looks kind of yucky. So, it should go down the drain. Right? Nope.
That milky-looking pasta water can be used. Why? Your pan of water is full of starch from the cooking process. If you have added salt before cooking the pasta, the water is seasoned and ready to use.
Let’s say you’re making a sauce to go with your pasta. It could be tomato-based sauce, lemon cream sauce, a basil pesto sauce, or a zesty, cheesy sauce. It doesn’t matter. But, what if that sauce is a little too runny? Do you need to thicken the sauce?
It may seem counterproductive to add water to a runny sauce to thicken it. Not if it’s the pasta water, however.
Use some of it to thicken and emulsify almost any pan sauce. How? It works to bring your sauce together, binding any liquids you have in the sauce with any fats which are in the sauce. That separation of fats or oils from the sauce base will disappear once it is added and you will be left with a cohesive sauce.
Keep in mind, you will not need a lot of it. Start with a few tablespoons and add more as necessary.
Now, you have the creamy sauce you need. The rest of the pasta water can now go down the drain.
Find a recipe from Forks, Corks, and Brews and try this out