Domesticated Ned: Make Your Spaghetti Sauce Gooder!

Spaghetti! Hard to spell (spag-hetti) but so delicious! As a single parent it's also a fantastic go-to meal when I don't feel like going full-on Chef Ned for dinner.

Plus: LEFTOVERS!!!

And it turns out I've been doing it wrong. The seriously-helpful folks at Serious Eats shared the secret to truly saucing dat pasta!

Cloud With a Chance of Meat Sauce

It's all about the starch, baby!

When straining the pasta after cooking it (al dente or die!), save some of the pasta water. It should be cloudy. Take that water and add it to your sauce. Doing so - by way of emulsification - will actually thicken it. Emulsifiers like starch hell bind liquids and oils, making that already-delicious sauce even deliciouser!

Added bonus: it helps the sauce stick to the pasta. That's flavor, baby!

It doesn't take much starch water to do the trick. If you go crazy with the water, just cook the sauce longer to evaporate the excess water.

This trick works with traditional spaghetti sauce, as well as alfredo and pesto.

Watch the video above for a step-by-step if you can't figure out how to save a little bit of starchy water and pour it into your sauce. You DID remember the sauce, right?!

H/T: Serious Eats