Cooking tip--questionable?

[Jester]

So I've been watching a lot of Cutthroat Kitchen the last few days On Demand. Because I haven't watched it much lately, and let's fade it, it's FUN!

But between the various segments are various commercials, which I usually fast forward through, but sometimes it's unavoidable that I see them. One of them is a mayonnaise commercial that has some professional chef giving various "cooking tips," almost all of which have to do with the sponsor's mayonnaise. No surprise there. And some of them may actually work, though some of them seem questionable.

And yet, the one that bothered me the most was one that had nothing to do with mayonnaise. This professional chef recommends, when making pasta, incorporating into the sauce some of the pasta cooking liquid.

Say what?!?

I'm already putting the pasta into the sauce. Why the hell would I add some salty, oily, starchy water to my well-crafted, well-seasoned sauce? What benefit does that impart? How can that in any way improve what I've done?

So, CS chefs, I ask you....do any of you do this? And if so, why? What, exactly, am I missing here?

[NecessaryCatharsis]

Depending on the type of sauce you are making, the starchy part of your pasta water can act as a thickener without having to add any cornstarch.

[Jetfire]

Yeah, Cutthroat Kitchen got me to try making some Pasta Carbenera (sp), and it was surprisingly easy and good. One of the tips for the recipe I found was to save a cup of pasta water to thicken the egg/parm sauce as you mix it into the hot pasta and bacon mix.

[Jester]

Hmmm.....never thought of that. But then, since my sauce never needs to get thicker, but sometimes adtually has to be thinned out, I don't think this cooking tip is going to be very useful for me.

As for Pasta Carbonara, I ate it for the first time just a couple years ago. Deeeeelicious! Have never made it, but perhaps one day soon. Recently, I have been playing around with a bunch of things I've never done before. I love eggplant, buy have never actually cooked with it, being a bit intimidated by it. At a recent farmer's market, I bought one, and have been having fun with it. Used it in a veggie stir fry to decent success, and made my first ever Eggplant Parmesan to much greater success. And as Eggplant Parmesan is one of my favorite Italian dishes, this is a good thing.

Today I shall be making gazpacho, as I bought some lovely tomatoes at that same farmer's market, and hadn't figured out what to do with them. As I already have almost everything I need for gazpacho in my kitchen, a quick trip to the grocery store and I'm off and running. I made gazpacho once years ago, but today I have a lot more confidence in my cooking abilities, and think this is going to be an awesome gazpacho...I've looked over a few recipes, plucked what I liked from each one, and am going to be winging it. Of course, it being MY gazpacho, it will have plenty of kick.

[Kittish]

The pasta water to thicken your sauce thing... I dunno, the reasoning seems sort of sound... but then, I have to wonder. How is there going to be enough starch in the water from cooking your pasta to thicken any sauce? Unless you boil the water down even further to increase the concentration of starch. Does it show that it's an idea I've never tried?

There is one cooking tip for pasta that I'll stand behind, even though it goes against pretty much every cooking show or instruction out there. Do NOT put oil in the water you cook your pasta in. The overall effect of putting oil in your water is that you wind up with pasta that has a thin coating of oil on it, so your sauce doesn't stick to it (or at least doesn't stick well). Stir your pasta right after you get it in the water and again 4 or 5 minutes later and it shouldn't stick to the pot or itself.

[JustShootMe]

Lidia Bastianich does this a lot & she says it's to thicken the sauce. I only do it if I have made a runny sauce, usually with fresh tomatoes.

I agree with Kittish about the oil in pasta water. I've always heard that you use oil to prevent boil-over. However, if you use a big enough pot and adjust the heat, it won't boil over. I've used oil in pasta ONCE when I was having a boil-over & I panicked. Greasy pasta.

[Kal]

I do it to thin the sauce a little actually. If the sauce has been simmering away, it can sometimes lose too much liquid. Bit of pasta water thins it slightly and fixes that.
It's not essential though and I've never noticed it thickening the sauce at all - that's what cornflour is for.

[Jester]

There is one cooking tip for pasta that I'll stand behind, even though it goes against pretty much every cooking show or instruction out there. Do NOT put oil in the water you cook your pasta in. The overall effect of putting oil in your water is that you wind up with pasta that has a thin coating of oil on it, so your sauce doesn't stick to it (or at least doesn't stick well). Stir your pasta right after you get it in the water and again 4 or 5 minutes later and it shouldn't stick to the pot or itself.

I am going to respectfully disagree with you here. Not saying that your method doesn't work. Merely that the oil method does work, if done right. To wit, use only a few drops of oil. That's all you need, and it should cut down on stickage greatly. Been doing it for a long time, and I've not had greasy pasta, nor have I noticed any lack of sauce to pasta adhesion.

I've always heard that you use oil to prevent boil-over.

Never heard that. Just that it's done to help lessen the amount of pasta that sticks to the pot. In my experience, there are always a couple of stubborn noodles, but most of them slide right out of the pot and into the colander, no muss, no fuss.

As far as thickening pasta sauce goes, I have never used cornstarch or flour. Ever. Partly because I make a pretty thick sauce to begin with. But also because there is a far better, tastier thickener out there. CHEESE! Seriously. If your sauce is thin, just add some of your favorite shredded Italian cheese, and watch the sauce thicken right up.


As for those few times I've had to thin out a sauce (back when I used far too much cheese--yes, it IS possible), I would never have used water. Sometimes olive oil, but usually wine. I'm all about adding flavor! And let's face it, any excuse to crack open a bottle of wine, right?

[CoffeeMonkey]

It's largely for sauces like pesto, where you have a very thick sauce that's supposed to just coat the pasta. Sometimes you might need a little liquid to loosen it up, and the starch in the water helps it jive with the noodles.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I find the pasta water works good to thicken up stroganoff too.

As for the oil/no oil, stirring the pasta and not adding oil only works if your patient and let your pasta dry properly. If your impatient like me and let it dry for 'a good twenty minutes' before you give up and cook it you really need to add a little oil to the water.

[NorthernZel]

IIRC, I once saw a Jamie Oliver show where he did the same thing, but he claimed that the starch in the pasta water helped the sauce clinging more to the pasta. And he didn't use vaste amounts, he simply picked up the pasta from the pot with a spaghetti spoon and tossed it in the saucepan (where the sauce already was simmering) without draining the pasta first.

[Jester]

As for the oil/no oil, stirring the pasta and not adding oil only works if your patient and let your pasta dry properly. If your impatient like me and let it dry for 'a good twenty minutes' before you give up and cook it you really need to add a little oil to the water.

Unless you're lazy like me and don't actually make your own pasta, but simply buy dried pasta.

Hey! Some corner are worth cutting. And one of these days, I really will make pasta from scratch.

[MoonCat]

Kittish, to see the starch, try this: Drain your pasta into a bowl or a dishpan. Leave the bowl or dishpan sitting there for a while. It won't take long for the pasta water to turn into a slightly thick, slightly gooey, starchy liquid. So, yeah, there really is enough starch in there to help thicken a sauce.

I don't usually bother adding it because like Jester, I only make thick sauce to begin with

[Kittish]

Kittish, to see the starch, try this: Drain your pasta into a bowl or a dishpan. Leave the bowl or dishpan sitting there for a while. It won't take long for the pasta water to turn into a slightly thick, slightly gooey, starchy liquid. So, yeah, there really is enough starch in there to help thicken a sauce.

Takes longer than I'm willing to let such sit on my counter. I use a rather LARGE pot for cooking my pasta, since it wants room to swim! And play! and dance around! (And I only ever have to chase one or two stubborn noodles out of my pot too, so I say it's not the oil, Jester.) So I generally wind up with half a gallon or more of water in the pot after the pasta is cooked.

[Barracuda]

Jester, have you tried making baba ghanouj? If you like eggplant, you should love that.