You can also freeze leftover pasta water and using it in place of broth. You can do this by adding it to vegetarian soups either in place of or in addition to veggie broth. You can also use pasta water for cooking beans; the extra starch in the water makes a super yummy bean broth, especially if you’re slow-cooking the beans over several hours. Cooking dried beans in leftover pasta water helps soften their skins and season them.

Surprisingly, pasta water also comes in handy for baking bread and pizza dough. You read that right: Replace the plain water in your bread recipe with the leftover pasta water. This works for recipes like pizza dough, sourdough, and quick bread. Thanks to the extra starch in the water, your bread will brown better and have an extra crispy crust. In quick bread recipes, it can even make the loaf a little chewier. If you decide to sub in the pasta water for plain, test the water for saltiness and leave the salt out of your bread recipe, so it doesn’t end up too salty. Far from just being good for thickening sauces, leftover pasta water is almost like gold in your kitchen, so don’t waste it by dumping it down the drain on your next Italian night.