You'll Never Boil Pasta In Water Again After Trying This Simple Swap

Pasta seems like one of the simplest, most straightforward foods to cook. Just put it in a pot and boil it until it's soft, right?

Turns out there's a little more to it than that. It's actually pretty easy to make mistakes while cooking pasta. You have to be careful not to overcook or undercook your meal, and common "tips" like adding olive oil to the water or breaking spaghetti before adding it to the pot can cause problems with the finished product. Even something as simple as rinsing your pasta can be a mistake. Kitchn recommends simply letting your pasta strain rather than rinsing it with water so that you won't rinse away starches that give the pasta extra flavor and help sauces stick.

However, most people never consider that water isn't the only thing you can use to boil pasta — or that it may not be necessarily the best to use. If you want to try something new, you can cook pasta in its own sauce or experiment with boiling pasta in wine. However, cooking pasta in stock can amp up even the simplest pasta dish a notch.

According to Eat This, Not That!, one tried-and-true Italian way to improve the flavor of your pasta is to boil it in stock. Originating in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, this simple trick will help season the noodles and deepen the flavor. Edible Phoenix states that you can use just about any kind of stock. Consider using bone broth or homemade vegetable stock made from scraps. If you've tried the popular hack of adding parmesan rind to pasta water, consider taking it up a notch and creating a parmesan rind broth.

Health.com recommends boiling orecchiette or macaroni pasta in chicken broth and serving without straining. Top with parmesan, pepper flakes, or a few vegetables for a light, savory take on the traditional Italian pasta en brodo, or pasta in broth.

However, keep in mind that broth may not necessarily be the best option for all dishes. Livestrong states that you shouldn't bother with the broth if you're planning on dousing the pasta in heavy sauces. You'll end up wasting a few pints of broth without being able to taste the difference.