Should You Ever Cook Your Pasta In Its Own Sauce?

Great pasta calls for a great sauce, but should you really cook the two together? Giorgia Sinatra, creative director at Pasta Sisters in Los Angeles, grew up making fresh pasta with her mother and siblings in Padova, Italy before coming to the U.S. and eventually starting the family business. She knows a thing or two about pasta, and how to make it sing in the sauce.

Sinatra told us that any pasta is great when finished in its sauce. "The amido helps make the sauce creamier, and the pasta gains some extra flavor," she said, using a culinary term for the white, foamy starch that pasta gives off while cooking.

Although it's always a good idea to finish pasta in sauce, Sinatra suggested that certain dishes will see more transformational change than others. "I suggest using this process with butter or olive oil-based pasta (such as burro e alici, aglio e olio, puttanesca without tomato sauce, or seafood spaghetti)."

Finishing pasta in its sauce works a bit differently when using dry versus fresh pasta, according to Giorgia Sinatra. "If using dry pasta, I would suggest pulling it out three or two minutes before, depending on how much water or liquid you want to add or is already present in the sauce, and how quickly you plan to reduce it." Bronze-cut dry pastas like Aldi's Priano conchiglie are especially good at holding sauces, due to the pasta's rougher texture.

As dry pasta absorbs moisture to finish cooking, it will reduce the liquid content of your sauce. This is something to consider even if using high-quality jarred marinara sauces, like Rao's Homemade. Jarred pasta sauces are ready to use as-is, and over-reducing can make the sensory experience suffer.

But Sinatra also explained that "fresh pasta is different since it usually cooks in about two to three minutes, so I would not use more than a minute in the pan." This brief cooking time pairs well with jarred sauces, which won't have time to over-reduce with already-soft pasta. Simmering is already the best way to improve a store-bought pasta sauce, so you may as well toss your fresh pasta in too for a quick, professional touch.