When the vast majority of Americans cook pasta, they drain the pasta water down the kitchen sink when it’s ready. However, if you’ve been doing this, you’ve actually been making a huge mistake!

Culinary experts say that cloudy pasta water, or “liquid gold” as they call it, has another useful purpose that will make you not want to waste it. This water can actually be used to elevate the sauce that will be accompanying the noodles.

While the pasta is being cooked, the starch from the flour that the noodles are made out of seep into the water, causing it to turn murky. This color makes us think that it’s unfit to use, but the liquid is actually exactly what you need for  emulsification, which results in a silky smooth sauce with the perfect consistency.

Emulsification makes a huge difference in the way your sauce tastes and holds up. It brings the oil and water together so they won’t separate on your plate and create a watery puddle at the bottom.

If you add some of the pasta water into your sauce, it will not only combine the oil and water, but it will also thicken the sauce so you won’t have to add extra flour, cornstarch or cream.

We should warn you that you should not add oil in the water, because it will make your pasta greasy and make the sauce slip off the noodles. A lot of people think adding oil is a good idea, but it’s not at all.

Instead of draining at the sink, you should use tongs or a pasta fork to remove the cooked noodles out of the water. Once you have done this, use a ladle to add some of the water into your sauce to create some magic for your taste buds.

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