You don't need to use that much water in the first place. The only water you actually NEED is the water the pasta takes up as it cooks. The rest is just there to keep the pasta underwater and stop the pasta from sticking together. Frequent stirring can achieve this instead (thanks to Harold McGee for causing me realise this).

Oh, and I'd add that apparently starting with cold water helps too.

I've never tried this, but would filtering the pasta water help?

if you had a backpacking style water filter pump, you could filter it and drink it. It's amazing how well they work. BUT! A good filtering pump will cost you $100+ USD sooooo.... if you're a backpacker and you've already got one, definitely filter it. If you don't already have one... there might not be enough cost savings and I would go with using the water for cooking grains, rice, soaking beans, etc.

You'd also have to be extremely careful with how you handle the water--inevitably it will get to the just warm enough temperature where a starchy liquid will be a perfect medium for bacterial growth, and there are plenty of airborne particles to populate it.

40 Million Italians are recoiling in horror!

Your heart is in the right place, but this is a bad idea from a culinary and quality standpoint. Find other ways to make use of the water, such as watering plants, or flushing the toilet, if you must. In the grand scheme of things, this is not a lot of water.

Restaurants do this all the time! Of course, they don't freeze it between uses, but I distinctly remember reading that, as they cook multiple batches of pasta in the same water, it gets so starchy and tasty, it imparts a better taste to the pasta. I think the chef even drank it.

Actually, starchy pasta water might not be a bad thing, as it can be used to thicken sauces and give them a nice, silky feel. I remember reading this in the book Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as a Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany. The author said that after a night of cooking many orders of pasta, the water was particularly good for finishing a sauce. Although I don't save my pasta water from batch to batch, I often take some out at the end of cooking to mix into the sauce.

Just NO!!! Water your plants... water anything... but no it is not for reuse!!!

i'm confused as to why BOILED tap water isn't good enough for food. if this is the case that i need to buy gallons mineral water, i'm officially too poor to even eat noodles.

First, I'm wondering where you live that the tap water is not suitable for cooking with?? This surprises me. Wouldn't a good filter be the best and most cost efficient option here? The bottled water industry as a whole is a complete sham! But that's another story...
I agree with others that you would be able to use it again, but only in the same night (as the restaurants do). I wouldn't freeze it myself.

You can also reuse the pasta water in other ways. I always reserve some for adding to pasta sauces--all of the extra starch in the pasta water makes it extra tasty!

Reuse it by boiling/blanching vegetables in it or adding it to sauces, but I wouldn't recommend reboiling pasta in it. Or as stated above, use it to water your plants.

If you were going to use the water to boil more pasta I would boil all the pasta at once and freeze the pasta for eating later rather than water.
The solution I see is to use the water in as many ways as you can during a meal preparation and then dispose of it thru watering plants, or some other non edible use.
Anyway an example I guess would be helpful when I make macaroni and cheese (but this would work with any pasta) I first boil water and blanche the veggies I am going to put in it, then I salt/oil/whatever that water to cook the pasta. Once the pasta is cooked I will drain off the water and reserve a ladle or two (depending) for thickening the sauce.
Basically I have only used one pot of water and it has had three "lives" so to speak. I don't do this to conserve water on purpose, I do this because I'm lazy and hate waiting for water but it saves water...

I don't reuse pasta water to boil more pasta in, but I do use it in place of plain water when I'm making soup/stews. I rarely use broth or stock, as I'm just cooking with vegetables, and the way I make my soups and stews I'm essentially making my own veg broth: saute onions, leek, garlic, sometimes celery and carrots, then adding the water, lentils or whatever beans and maybe some rice or potatoes. Works for me.

Mix up some pizza or bread dough with it.

Throw in some vegetables and turn it into stock.

Drink it.

Water plants.

Or just save it in the fridge or freezer for next time.

some places; like Carlsbad New Mexico (of the caverns fame) have undrinkable water.

It's because there are LOTS of minerals in the water; because essentially the aquifer is more caves. (there are LOTS of caves in that region, not just the main caverns).

boiling it doesn't remove the minerals.

for example: I have a stomach issue (had surgery in college). I lived in the san francisco bay area for a while and drank the tap water there, no problem.

when I got to carlsbad, the tap water made me sick; I had to religiously drink bottled.

I used bottled for making rice and soup; but did use tap for pasta- where not that much water is absorbed.

what I would do with the water; re-use it to make rice (ie, re-use it once!); and freeze it in marked quantities (1 cup, 2 cups, 3 cups, etc)

I would also use the minimal necessary for pasta as stated above.

Is filtering the tap water not an option?

Oh geeze, I would just wait for it to cool down and then use it to water plants outside.

Haven't you seen Foodies?? Serve it up to guests with a parmesan foam!

If your tap water is not good for cooking why not just buy regular bottled water instead of mineral water?

Skip the water entirely and cook your pasta in the liquid you intend to use as a sauce, typically broth or tomato sauce.

The pasta doesn't care what kind of liquid it's absorbing, just that it's liquid. If you calibrate the proportions accurately, you won't have extra liquid to drain off, and the dish will have deeper flavor.

You can do this with vegetables, too. Cook the veggies directly in a sauce made from a bechamel base but with a liquid other than milk (fruit juices often work well).

My mom reused pasta leftover liquid next am in preparing Canadian traditional oatmeal.

Our family has continued this idea and third generation is using it too.

You could say it's tried and true.

I'm 70ish and, at my last physical, my Doc stated that I have the heart of a 35-yr-old. His advice : cut out that daily porridge and slow down the teenage drive and enthusiasm. It's making the Seniors in the waiting room uncomfortable.

to jillrenee from boston :

Welcome minerals. Don't fear them.

Recent Discovery Channel show [ on Discovery's South East Asian Network ] re Human Body stated that pure, mineral-free water is POISON. It would leach out essential minerals from our bodies, particularly the FOUR CRITICAL ONES. Avoid drinking distilled water [ mineral-free ] on a regular, daily basis. Loss of bone density would be a serious concern.

Cheers !

to Doddibot :

To ensure non-stick pasta, we add a tablespoon of top-quality cooking oil [ two, if we make a large batch of pasta for leftovers ].

No need to bother stirring.

Cheers

Um, restaurants will use the same water during one service, such as lunch, or dinner. They don't save the water from service to service, or the next day, so don't get that idea.

Use it to water the plants, heck, bathe in it if you feel so inclined. But why clutter your freezer to keep water that you really don't need? You don't save bath water, do you?

@Steve8rox: distilled water is not the same as tap water! You can't drink distilled water, your cells would lyse.

There are many places where the tap water is quite unfit for consumption. When I was in Thailand, there were signs by almost every tap reminding you NOT to drink it, it was purely for external uses. Bottled water was quite cheap and available everywhere, and noone, even locals, ever drank the tap water because of the illness it would cause.

Not every where is a first world nation with perfect water and sanitation.

Make soup and freeze that

@arielg- "your cells would lyse". What's lyse?

boiled tap water even in places like thailand should be fine. also my new trick is something i learned from harold mcgee (look him up on new york times website) - you don't need a ton of water. just get a smaller pot and boil the pasta in it. it can overflow more easily so you have to watch it more but ... you save gas or electricity and time and the pasta tastes the same. so if you wanted to put it in the frig to use as soup broth starter it's not as much volume as the traditional style - maybe a quart or 2.

I use sometimes same day in a vegetable soup or casserole. I like to reuse pasta water because it's a very nutritious water. But I never froze for using later.

Hmm, never heard of cells lysing (cells rupturing, @ArtsyGirl) from drinking distilled water. I think drinking and cooking exclusively with dH2O might prevent one from obtaining necessary minerals, but occasionally chugging a cup of dH2O in the lab when the water fountain ain't working is just fine, having done it for years...Besides, I think that soft drink companies use dH2O for making beverages...

Rashmi,you could use the cooled leftover pasta water in pressure cookers, to make dough for chapatis/nan/paratha or other flat breads, to make a curry sauce (which would be nice and silky) and as other folks have suggested, for soups and stock.

I would use it to cook with, but not to cook more pasta with.

Soup, probably, because I'm lazy, but there's a lot of options.

Actually, if space in the freezer isn't a concern, it's a good idea to store frozen containers of water, to help the refrigerator run more smoothly. I usually water plants with my leftover pasta water, or I dump it in the compost pile.

I re-use pasta water all the time - especially while it's still hot, because I don't like having to wait for a large pot to boil all the time (and steaming up my kitchen, especially in the summer.) I will cook a batch of pasta to eat Sunday, then use the same water to boil potatoes to refridgerate and then warm up and eat Monday. And then use what's left as broth for soup on Tuesday. I had no idea that was so unusual.

My brother and mother have been drinking distilled water for years.....they're fine. The majority of people will get enough minerals from their diet without issue.

I'm sure freezing and reusing would work well, at least a couple times. Perhaps the trick of putting the water in gallong ziplocks and letting them freeze flat would free up space issues in the freezer.

Best of luck!

Your cells would NOT lyse if you drank distilled water. Maybe if you put it directly into your veins, but that would be true for tap water too. In the U.S., tap water by and large (with a few exceptions) is VERY safe. The mineral content is quite low compared to what you get from actual food. This hysteria is hilarious. Just water the plants.

I have an easy fix for your problem. Boil pasta in two batches. Whatever quantity you need. Reuse water for the second batch. That way, you will be able to cut the quantity of water to near half. I know it involves more effort than one batch but certainly less effort and energy compared to freezing. At the end, use part this water for sauce too. As mentioned by many others, avoid freezing. Try some veggy soup instead.

Does anyone else buy water to use for cooking? I am actually shocked to hear this. I live in Norway where the water is excellent, and might be ignorant, but filter the water please! Factories tapping water on plastic bottles, transporting them by rail, boat, plane og road to consumers is as wrong as you can get.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/dining/25curi.html

I can understand not wanting to boil in the tap water. I live in Tokyo and I don't want to use the tap water for cooking or drinking because of the radiation that has leaked into our system. I am looking for ways to save my bottled water so that it doesn't come to waste when I cook my dishes.

I know this was posted over a month ago, but I wanted to share this with you: Awhile ago a Bon Appetit came in the mail and it included this article
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/how-to-make-perfect-pasta

Pay special attention to #4. While this may not clear up reusing your pasta water to boil pasta in the future, you can still use 1/2-1 cup of the water in the sauce. It makes a world of difference!

1. You don't need a lot of water to cook pasta, just enough to cover it. Make sure you stir.
2. If you cook again the next day you could refrigerate it and reuse it and it would probably make the pasta taste better, but maybe it would take longer to cook because it's thicker.
3. I'm not sure about regular pasta but whole wheat pasta water seems to taste pretty good, like some kind of soup and you could either drink it or make noodle soup or some other soup with it.
4. If the tap water doesn't taste good or has various contaminants in it, then it would not be good for cooking since it soaks into the food. I use reverse osmosis water (look for reverse osmosis on ebay) and it's almost like distilled water. That helps ensure you are drinking clean water.
5. No it's an urban tale that drinking distilled water is bad for you. The fact is that tap water has miniscule amounts of anything other than simply water. Your body can't tell the difference between distilled water or spring water or whatever water. Water is water. In fact as soon as you drink water it gets mixed with whatever is in your stomach already as soon as you drink it, so it's not "pure" anymore. :). Some people say it "tastes flat" Well maybe if you're used to off-flavors in tap water maybe. You can always add some contamination to your water like a bit of salt and sugar if you prefer :)