Pasta Water Is the Austerity Times It-Girl We All Need

Having gone from humble byproduct to luxury candle, pasta water is living the American Dream.

The journey from humble pantry staple to “it-girl” ingredient is mystical and complex, paved by a quorum of influencers, chefs, and magazines, unfailingly documented on Instagram and TikTok. Many of the examples you’re most familiar with, like ramps, chili crisp, and sriracha, achieved virality relatively recently, despite being used in kitchens around the world for decades prior. Ramps, for example, have long been part of Appalachian cooking, while chili crisp is a core part of Chinese and Taiwanese cuisines, among others.

Befitting our austere economic climate and rising inflation, today’s buzziest ingredient is technically free –– a byproduct of boiling dried pasta in salted (or unsalted) water. Pasta water has, by all accounts, arrived.

In case you’re unfamiliar, thanks to the starch found in wheat (i.e., not gluten-free) pasta, the water used to cook noodles helps sauces become more emulsified and thicker, while also clinging better to proteins and vegetables. As the creator behind the popular vodka sauce recipe, Dan Pelosi, also known as Grossy Pelosi, knows a thing or two about using pasta water as a thickening agent, but says he actually prefers to use it to “breathe life” back into leftover pasta. “After I make my sauce, I love to keep an extra cup [of pasta water] in the fridge for leftovers. It has this great ability to bring a sauce that’s separated in the fridge back to life. You add the pasta to a pan, throw the heat on, and little by little add the pasta water back.”

The correlation between accessibility and virality –– ingredients really take off when there’s wide access to them, ideally at a more approachable price point –– is undeniable, but people also fundamentally have to feel compelled to do stuff with it. Sure, you can put sriracha on a stir fry, but when folks started dressing up as bottles for Halloween, it signaled a new echelon of stardom. Likewise, pasta water is no longer simply a way to get really, really good sauce –– for Madison Malone Kircher, a reporter at the New York Times, it’s the key to making incredible instant hot chocolate. “Nothing fancy, we're talking instant cocoa, Swiss Miss packet vibes here. Something about the starchy water elevates the humble processed chocolate powder into a much more delicious and creamy beverage,” she says. And at Philadelphia restaurant Fiorella, Marc Vetri’s team has devised a savory cocktail known as the Dirty Pasta Water Martini, in which pasta water replaces dry vermouth.

“Pasta water can begin a soup if you don't have any broth,” explains food writer Tamar Adler. “Start by cooking aromatics in a soup pot —  onion, carrot, garlic, fennel or ginger etc — until tender. Mix some fresh water with your pasta water and then add it to the soup pot, along with some lentils.” Meanwhile, Nigella Lawson uses pasta water to improve her bread’s rise.

Outside the kitchen, Cold Cream sells a "save pasta water" mug, and the Internet is rife with save pasta water shirts; Within the gardening community, there’s hot (no pun intended) discussion about using pasta water –– cooled, and most importantly, unsalted –– to water plants. Jupiter NYC recently collaborated with luxury candle brand D.S & Durga to create a delightfully whimsical pasta water candle, which highlights the ingredient’s tell-tale notes of starch and saline. According to co-owners Jess Shadbolt, Annie Shi, and Clare deBoer, the candle’s fragrance was designed to channel the feeling in the kitchen at the end of the night, when the starchy-sweet aroma of salty pasta water that has reduced and intensified throughout the evening fills the air.

I, for one, celebrate pasta water’s transition from humble weeknight dinner byproduct to luxury candle, made in Brooklyn –– it’s a glow-up I’d wish upon anyone, and it just goes to show: anything is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. “I recently had someone be like, OMG, business idea, you should sell pre-made pasta water!” says Pelosi. “I was like, OK, babe you just…have to make pasta.” 

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