Are you pouring kitchen gold down the drain? After Monday’s pasta boiling post, one reader suggested I follow up with this critical kitchen secret.
Pasta water added to your favorite sauce makes a more evenly coated, well bound finished product. Think about one of those white wine sauces and you’ll get what I mean. Two tablespoons of that starchy, hot, salty water, added two minutes before finishing, will turn your slippery shrimp scampi into a pasta loving silk coating every linguine strand.
In Italy I learned that this also works great with pesto. A tablespoon of that pre-seasoned water thins the sauce just enough for it move and mix with your pasta without diluting the pesto flavor.
If you’re not convinced, take a look at Bill Buford’s book Heat. After months working as a lowly kitchen apprentice for Mario Batali, he is convinced that the restaurant's pasta water should be bottled and sold.
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