A little pasta water can help you with baking, making cocktails, and making your sauces smoother and silkier, but a DIY version of it would work just fine as well. Some time ago, one of the Milk Street cooking school's blog readers noted that neither gluten-free nor whole wheat pasta really produces the kind of starchy water that helps to thicken a sauce.

Soon enough, the cooking school's chefs jumped right in to remedy this problem by creating a pasta water substitute that involved cornstarch, salt, water, and no actual pasta. Start by mixing 1/4 teaspoon each of cornstarch and kosher salt into one cup of water (increase the cornstarch to 1/2 teaspoon for starchier water) and then bring it to a boil.

They further advised using the microwave: nuke it for two minutes, stir, then give it another two minutes of heat. When it came to comparing the DIY substitute with the real deal, the chefs said they prepared several pasta recipes using both traditional pasta water and their substitute and "found them almost indistinguishable."