The Unexpected Sauce You Should Be Adding To Your Pasta

Pasta is one of those wonderful dishes that you can pretty much experiment on in any way imaginable. From the Buddy the Elf pasta dish (chocolate sauce, rainbow sprinkles, marshmallows, M&Ms, maple syrup, and a Pop-Tart) to pasta dishes topped with real gold, to all the normal dishes in between, there are endless ways to dress your noodles. Plus, there's no going wrong with a simple butter and salt pasta. 

From Asian noodle dishes to classic Italian pastas, the combinations range from basic to wildly creative, and people continue to experiment with new ways to mix up a noodle dish. One cook from Bon Appétit recently discovered an unexpected topping that's found in some pasta recipes, and even tried adding it on its own, only to find that it was surprisingly delicious and added a wonderful depth of flavor. Next time you make a pasta dish and can't figure out what sauce to add, consider this option.

While it may seem like something best reserved for stir-fries and other dishes, Amber Lee from Bon Appétit found that adding oyster sauce to pasta dishes is a great way to add a salty umami flavor to noodles. If you're anything like us, you're all about the umami. 

Rather than ruining the dish, "the thick, almost syrupy consistency of the oyster sauce clings to the noodles, giving them a glossy coating [that] keeps you slurping until there's only a light sheen of oil left on the plate," (via Bon Appétit). Lee made a spicy garlic butter linguini recipe from Marion's Kitchen and was surprised to find oyster sauce listed as an ingredient, but even more surprised to find that it "lends the dish a rich savoriness" that was downright delicious. It might sound unconventional, but the more we hear about it, the more we want to test it out for ourselves.