The weeknight pasta guide: five sauces, one method

Every great pasta sauce is an emulsion — fat, water and starch shaken into silk. Master that idea and you stop following recipes and start improvising dinner.

The one method

Cook the pasta very salty and very al dente. Before draining, steal a mug of the cloudy water. That starch is liquid gold: toss it with fat (butter, oil, cream, cheese) over heat and it thickens into a sauce that clings instead of pooling.

Five sauces from the same pantry

Garlic butter: sliced garlic in butter until pale gold, chilli flakes, pasta water, parmesan. Creamy tomato: our slow tomato base loosened with cream. Pesto walnut: basil, walnuts and oil pounded coarse. Mushroom: browned mushrooms deglazed with a splash of stock. Lemon: zest, butter and pecorino for the lightest night of the week.

Try it tonight

Start with the creamy meatball spaghetti — it teaches browning, simmering and tossing in a single pan. Then riff.