Lidia Bastianich's Hassle-Free Trick For Stretching Out Pasta Sauce

A pasta dish is only as good as its sauce, but what if there's not enough to cover the pasta? This predicament happens too often, especially when you have unexpected guests come over at the last minute. It's good if you have store-bought pasta sauces in your pantry to save the moment. If you don't, there's no need to fret. 

Chef Lidia Bastianich has the perfect solution to stretch out pasta sauce so you don't feel embarrassed serving a meal that looks and tastes bland. According to Bastianich, the best thing to do if you end up not having adequate sauce for the pasta dish you're preparing is to add some pasta water.

Bastianich recommends ladling some pasta water into the mixture of pasta and sauce, then letting it cook on a low flame until the pasta is cooked through. The pasta water will initially increase the volume of the sauce, and then, as it cooks, it will thicken the sauce, allowing it to coat the pasta better. 

However, it is important to note that using pasta water can alter the taste of the sauce since the former is typically salted. To prevent this from happening, always taste-test the pasta and the sauce each time you add a ladleful of the water into the mixture. It's also wise to switch to plain water or unsalted broth if you need to add more liquid while simmering the pasta sauce.

Most chefs consider pasta water "liquid gold" because of its uncanny ability to turn basic pasta into a dreamy dish of silky and saucy consistency. The secret here lies in the starch that gets released as the noodles are boiled in salted water. The resulting salty and starchy solution, when added to the pasta sauce, reacts with the oils in the sauce — whether that be butter, olive oil, or rendered fat — helping them bind together through the process of emulsification. This creates a glossy and smooth sauce that sticks to every strand of the pasta.

That said, chef Lidia Bastianich's tip is a practical way to stretch pasta sauce, considering it only requires you to use pasta water to do the trick. Nevertheless, it isn't the only way to maximize the sauce and stretch its flavor to more servings. One of the tried-and-tested hacks is to put some water into the used pasta sauce jar or can and shake it vigorously to rinse all of the remaining sauce out. Another is by adding pureed tomatoes to the mix — something that chef Bastianich likely defaults to when faced with the same situation, knowing canned tomatoes are one of the simple pantry staples she always has on hand. Lastly, adding beef broth, tomato soup, and other ingredients, like veggies and sausages, also stretches the volume of the sauce, but this may significantly alter the overall flavor of the dish.