Leftover pasta water has plenty of uses in the kitchen. You probably already know that adding a bit of pasta water to your sauce will give it tons of flavor and elevate it to luxurious, restaurant-quality heights (not to mention it will help it cling to your pasta). What you might not know is that using that pasta water in homemade bread can create a fluffier, tastier bread with a longer shelf life. Nigella Lawson once tweeted that using pasta water will help your bread rise and improve the texture. However she did not go into much detail about how it works. But don’t worry, we will! The starch in the water is the key, and the salt adds to the flavor. There’s real science behind what’s happening.
In Japan, there’s a technique called yukone for breadmaking. To do it, you need to cook some of the flour and water before adding it to the dough to pre-gelatinize the starches. It’s a bit like making a roux, only you then add it back into the bread dough. You end up with a fluffier and more tender result. The pores in bread made this way become larger but fewer in number compared to standard dough. The starch in the final product is significantly different and the bread is, to many, much more flavorful. The starches from your pasta are pre-gelatinized in pasta water when you add it to your dough, contributing to a smaller-scale version of yukone.
The effect of gelatinized starch on bread
During the fermentation process, the gas bubbles that form in your bread can only expand so far. Thanks to gelatinized starch, those bubbles can get bigger because the starch allows the dough to become more elastic. This means your bread will rise more (and therefore be fluffier) in the end. The crumb of your bread will improve and be more like when you bake sourdough than a standard white bread. You’ll have a softer and more even texture overall and arguably a better mouthfeel. Using pasta water won’t have as dramatic an effect as the full yukone method, but the difference will still be noticeable. It can take your otherwise good loaf of homemade bread and make it great one. You can try it with one of our 31 great bread recipes here.
Your biggest concern here will be the salt content in your water. If you heavily salt your pasta water, keep that in mind when you’re baking. Some salt is obviously welcome, but you don’t want the water to be too salty and ruin the flavor of your bread. If you know you’re going to make bread ahead of time, you can salt your water appropriately. If it’s just something you came up with on a whim after cooking pasta, you may need to dilute the pasta water with fresh water to strike the right balance of flavors.
