You’ve likely heard the adage “save your pasta water” millions of times over, shouted at you frantically from the pages of cookbooks, the nonnas in YouTube videos, and myriad onlinepasta recipes. As summer rolls around and your local farmers market spills over with thefreshest, juiciest ears of corn, a revision on the principle has the power to take your pasta water and, in turn, your sauces, up a level.Save yourcornwater.Then boil your pasta in that corn water.
It bears repeating that cloudypasta wateris the humble, unassuming hero of so many sauces because it’s supercharged with flavor and texture from starch and salt. Without a healthy dose of pasta water bestowed upon your sauce, you risk a final result that’s noticeably less silky and less flavorful—a sauce that slides right off the slippery surface of each noodle before it makes it into your mouth. Water that you’ve used to boil corn (for these purposes, I’m calling it “corn water”) is even starchier and more flavorful—so why would you waste it, unceremoniously dumping all that golden nectar down the drain?
So once you’ve boiled your farmers market bounty, don’t toss the water—it’s a flavorful sauce waiting to happen. Keep the party going by merely removing the cobs with a pair of tongs, salting the water (if you hadn’t already), and bringing it back to a boil and throwing in the pasta shape of your choosing. The resulting water is doubly starchy, ready to bind your sauce into something evenmoreluscious and smooth. Even better, the corn water will impart a subtly sweet, earthy flavor into whatever sauce you’ve got on the docket, and into the noodles themselves.
Takecorn cacio e pepe, for example: cheesy, peppery, and oh-so-corny, made even more so if you boil your pasta in the same water as your corn. Perhaps, in a summery risotto, use the corn water rather than stock as your stirring liquid. Or, poach shrimp in corn water before tossing it into a pasta, salad, or seafood stew alongside the kernels.
Fresh, sunny corn is remarkably sweet, and frankly it’s the only thing I want to eat in the summer in all of its perfect forms—charredon the grill and chomped straight off the cob, tossed in asalad, or blended into a refreshing,cool soup. The pasta-in-corn-water school of thought stretches that corn, maximizing flavor and minimizing waste, drawing every last ounce of delectable juice out of it. Not only do you pay homage to the life cycle of the corn itself with this low-waste method, but you’ll also save a full pot’s worth of water in the process. A double win, in our books.
Corn water is the gift that keeps on giving; even after you’ve boiled pasta in it, you can use it to makechowder, with the water as its starchy base. Or, makestockout of it, and use that stock for meatless riffs on any recipes that might call for a chicken stock.
In the wise words of Corn Kid, lest we forget him: “I can’t imagine a more beautiful thing.”
