I know you're supposed to put salt in the water when you're cooking pasta, both to aid in anti-starch gelation and to add flavour.
This got me thinking - what ELSE can pasta absorb from the water it is boiled in? I suppose it couldn't be anything, probably depends on the surface of the pasta, its cells, etc.
To test I put a LOT of nutmeg in a bowl of water, boiled it and dropped some couscous in it.
The couscous didn't taste like nutmeg at all. I guess it could be because the nutmeg does not dissolve in water but still - does pasta absorb everything that is dissolved in the water it is cooked in? Does that mean we can create super-pasta if we boil it in sauce or something?
