#pasta-water

#pasta-water

Even something as simple as aglio e olio, a classic Neapolitan dish made with olive oil and garlic, can have a completely different impact on your taste buds in a restaurant. You might not realize it on a conscious level, but the main thing chefs do better than home cooks is nailing the texture. In restaurants, pasta isn't cooked to al dente perfection in the pot; instead, it's slightly undercooked, then finished in a skillet together with the sauce.

"It creates a wonderful, velvety, thick sauce without any cream or anything else," she said. This is because the starch that pasta releases into the water when you are cooking helps to emulsify and thicken the sauce. To do this, De Laurentiis recommends reserving at least a cup of the hot pasta water before you drain your pasta. She also says to add a bit of the water to your sauce a time as you stir it into your cooked pasta.