Pasta will taste 'much more flavourful' if you boil it with 1 unexpected ingredient

Your pasta dishes will taste "a million times better" if you boil it with one particular ingredient - and it isn't salt. Although most people boil their pasta with water and salt in a saucepan, some chefs have revealed that replacing water with one pantry staple can give pasta dishes a flavourful boost. Even Marco Pierre White, the renowned English chef and restaurateur, is on board.

Cooks have been revealing online that they use chicken stock to boil their pasta instead of plain water. A Reddit user asked for advice on using stock in his pasta recipes, and the home chefs soon came flooding into the comment section to share their love of the culinary hack.

One user wrote: "You definitely not only can cook pasta in broth but should. It boosts nutrients and flavor." Another person agreed, writing: "Pasta cooked in broth is a million times better actually."

Another home cook said: "I do this a LOT. I love the flavor it gives off. I've used beef and chicken broth in dishes to cook pasta depending on the meat in the dish and it always works fine. You could use veggie broth too depending on the dish."

A fourth person commented: "It just adds a bit more flavor. like I usually make my rice with chicken stock instead of water, it just gives it a bit more depth."

Marco Pierre White, a renowned chef, has previously used stock pots in his pasta recipes, during his time working with the cooking brand Knorr.

While filming his carbonara recipe, White said: "We're not going to season the sauce, we're just going to season the water for the pasta, because there's enough salt with the bacon and the parmesan."

He explained that he chose to season his water with chicken stock instead of salt because it "makes your pasta taste better".

White is not the only chef to use stock to bring flavour to his pasta. Chef Mike from Detroit 75 Kitchen explained on TikTok that he makes his favourite pasta recipe using chicken stock. He showed how he puts the pasta in a pan with just enough stock to cover it, then cooks it for eight to ten minutes.

Mike said: "When you add chicken stock, it's just so luxurious. Make sure to add good salt."

Another cook on the social media platform, @thisjenngirl, said she would "never go back to boiling pasta in water every again". For her recipe, she said she simmers a single serving of pasta in one cup of chicken broth and ¾ cup of milk until al dente. "Oh my gosh," she told her followers, "it's so good".