Pasta 411

Did you know that most home chefs waste a valuable kitchen resource every time they cook pasta? They pour it right down the drain. That???s right -- the water your pasta cooks in might just be the missing miracle ingredient for your sauce. Professional chefs know that adding a little of the starchy, salty pasta cooking water to almost any sauce gives it a silky touch that helps bind the sauce to the noodles. Try adding anywhere from a tablespoon or two up to one third cup of your pasta cooking water as you finish your sauce.

Then, when your pot of noodles is ready, here???s another tip to finish it off. Instead of dumping out the entire pot of boiling water and then rinsing your noodles, try adding a quart or so of cold water from your tap into your pot. That stops the cooking but leaves the pasta still hot. When you pour the pasta and water through your colander, you won???t produce clouds of scalding steam, either.