Why You Should Cook Pasta In Red Wine

What's your go-to strategy for preparing pasta? For most, it involves boiling up a large pot of water and tossing the noodles in. It is, after all, the way that most people have cooked pasta for years. And few have questioned this method. Until now. 

For instance, Serious Eats' Food Lab has divulged that there is a simple way to save cooking time and have the sauce adhere better to your pasta. They recommend soaking your pasta in water first to hydrate it. Meanwhile, you can prepare your sauce. Once the pasta is completely hydrated, you add it right to your sauce for cooking. How cool is that? And there's more. You don't always have to hydrate your noodles either. According to America's Test Kitchen, you can also opt to add your dry pasta right to the sauce to cook it. The outlet even contends that this will enhance your dish's flavor and that's always a good thing. Now, before you pop open a jar of Prego pasta sauce and attempt to cook your noodles in its contents, wait. This method doesn't work with jarred or overly thick sauces (via LifeHacker). Remember, your dry noodles still require a good amount of actual liquid if they are going to both hydrate and achieve a desirable pasta al dente. 

What if you could use a liquid that would enable your noodles to cook perfectly while enhancing their flavor? What if this liquid was your favorite red wine? 

Cooking pasta in red wine is an actual thing. A good thing at that. Recipe writer Jim Mumford shared with Reader's Digest that it is not only something people have been doing for generations, but the wine provides a gentle flavor. He adds that the acid in the wine also aids in the cooking process, creating a "pleasant texture." Irish food writer and television host, Donal Skehan, revealed in a YouTube video of his Drunken Spaghetti that as the red wine reduces, the alcohol flavor dissipates leaving behind a fruity sweetness that marries well with other spices. There's also the added bonus of red wine's health benefits. 

According to FN Sharp, cooking with red wine allows you to reap its good stuff like antioxidants, cholesterol-lowering resveratrol, and cancer-fighting agents, while avoiding much of the alcohol as it burns off. Plus, with red wine enhancing your pasta's overall taste, you can negate having to add creamy or buttery sauces that aren't as artery-friendly. And look at that color! Who knew that pasta could be transformed from cardboard beige to this luscious shade of purple so easily? 

So what do you think? Is it time to grab that wine, fetch your pasta, and snap to it? Your taste buds eagerly await your decision.