When Should You Rinse Pasta? (And When Should You Never, Ever Rinse It?)

One of the great kitchen debates: Should you rinse pasta after cooking?

This quick guide breaks down when to keep the starch on the pasta for an extra silky sauce and when rinsing is the secret to perfect pasta salads and stir-fries.

Read on to get the details!

When You Should Not Rinse Pasta
Whenever you’re making sauced pasta — marinara, alfredo, pesto, anything creamy or oil-based. Pasta naturally releases starch as it cooks, and that starchy coating is GOLD.. it’s what makes the sauce cling instead of sliding off. Rinsing washes that magic away. Instead, drain and toss straight into your sauce so the two can work their magic together.

Tip: Save a splash of pasta water before draining. Stir it into the sauce for an extra hit of silky, starchy goodness.

When You Should Rinse Pasta

• For cold pasta salads
  Rinsing cools the pasta down fast, stops it from overcooking (goodbye mushiness), and removes some of the starch so the noodles don’t glue themselves together. Bonus: it makes the texture feel lighter and fresher in cold dishes.
• For stir-frying or pan-frying later
  Rinsing stops the cooking in its tracks and keeps the noodles from sticking once they hit the hot pan.
• If the recipe flat-out tells you to
  A few sauced dishes really do want rinsed pasta, usually when starch would get in the way or when you’re mixing into delicate broths. In this case – and only this case – rinse away!

Because perfect pasta shouldn’t be complicated! 😉