Talk to the best cooks in Italy, and you might learn a simple secret to making great pasta: save the water the noodles are cooked in. After pasta noodles have finished cooking, Italian cooks do not throw out all the water. They keep a small amount to use when making the sauce for the dish. The leftover water contains starch from the pasta. This starch helps other ingredients stick to the noodles. It also helps to thicken the sauce. And because the water often has salt (and sometimes other seasonings), it adds flavor too.