Here’s Why You Need to Keep Your Pasta Water

Pasta water uses
Photo by Mor Shani on Unsplash

If you’re making pasta, you may be creating something wonderful and amazing and throwing it out—or rather, pouring it down the drain—without even realizing. That’s right, pasta water is basically a golden elixir you should be saving at all costs. Here’s why.

Surprisingly Helpful

Pasta water is basically that starchy, cloud-y, salty water that is created when you cook pasta. And it’s worth its weight in gold. Well, it isn’t, but you really shouldn’t throw it out.

The best and most obvious use for pasta water is for stirring into your pasta sauce. This will make it cling better to the pasta and get the sauce all smooth and creamy, just like in a restaurant.

Practical Uses

But that’s not the only thing you can do with your pasta water. In addition to using it in pasta dishes, you can also use it for making homemade bread (it helps the bread rise), in soup recipes as a replacement for vegetable broth, and to cook beans in. Some even suggest to water your plants with it. So think twice next time you’re about to pick up that colander!