Italian cooks talk about pasta water tasting like the sea. The number behind that is roughly 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of kosher salt per quart of water. Less than that and the pasta tastes flat. More than that and the dish goes too salty unless you adjust the sauce to compensate.

The salt seasons the pasta from the inside out as the starch hydrates. It is impossible to fix later. You can drown a finished bowl of carbonara in pecorino and you will still taste that flat pasta underneath. The water also becomes your sauce thickener. A ladle of starchy water emulsifies fat and cheese into a glossy coating that no other ingredient can replicate.

Two clear rules. Salt the water until it tastes pleasantly seasoned. Always reserve a mug of pasta water before draining. Those two habits separate a fine bowl of spaghetti from a great one.

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