Starchy water. We know by now to always save at least a ladleful of that cloudy, well-salted liquid after boiling a pot of pasta, an ingredient necessary for transforming a skillet of melted fat and beaten eggs into silky carbonara, or for seamlessly melting grated Parmesan into creamy vodka sauce so the mixture becomes a proper emulsion, nary a cheese clump in sight. And what about the water used for boiling potatoes? I’ll never forget a line in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Long Winter: “There was no milk but Ma said, ‘leave a very little of the boiling water in, and after you mash them beat them extra hard with a big spoon.’ The potatoes turned out white and fluffy.” I haven’t made mashed potatoes with milk since—just butter and starchy water.
The point is clear: Be it science or magic, that cloudy water left over from boiling pasta or potatoes holds the key to a lot of deliciousness. And where there is deliciousness, there is usually also the work of Nigella Lawson.
from Food52 https://ift.tt/2RFiSc3
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