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How to Fix Pasta Sauce That Is Too Salty
Practical ways to rescue pasta sauce that tastes too salty without making the sauce watery or completely changing the recipe.
A sauce that is slightly too salty can often be rescued.
Dilute with unsalted ingredients
Add more of the sauce’s main unsalted ingredient: tomatoes to tomato sauce, cream or milk to a creamy sauce, or unsalted vegetable puree where appropriate.
Increase the pasta-to-sauce ratio
Sometimes the simplest fix is to toss the sauce with a little more unsalted pasta.
Add richness when appropriate
Butter, cream, ricotta or mascarpone can soften the perception of salt in sauces where those ingredients make sense.
Be careful with acidity and sweetness
A little acidity or sweetness can change how salty a sauce tastes, but it does not remove salt. Use them only when they fit the recipe.
Avoid adding more salty ingredients
Pause parmesan, cured meat, salty pasta water and stock until you have corrected the base sauce.
