Going through all the trouble to make your own pasta is only half the battle. Luckily, the other half requires little effort. Fresh pasta is great and all, but it can never be cooked al dente unless it was dried first. To help achieve that goal, one additional piece of equipment comes in handy. And again, it’s painless.
The Eppicotispai Natural Beechwood Collapsable Pasta Drying Rack
One of the many good things about dried pasta is that it offers something for everybody. With an almost endless variety of shapes and styles, a pasta aficionado can quickly amass quite a collection. When it comes time to reach into the pantry and cook up a batch, chances are choosing can become a difficult decision—especially considering everyone has their own personal faves. But there is a way for everyone to have the pasta they want without boiling pot after pot of water.
The Jokari 229476 Healthy Steps Pasta Portion Basket
It is famously difficult to judge the serving size of pasta in a pre-cooked state. The conundrum, delicious as though it may be, is easily solved with a little help from a measuring guide. The Epicurean Gourmet Series Pasta Server Utensil
Well I always thought it would be primates that rise up against humanity à la Planet of the Apes, but apparently it’s our very own tableware that is set to evolve.
At some point, one gets tired of adorning the wall with strands of spaghetti. While there may be no better way to test the doneness of pasta known to man than to throw it against a wall to see if it sticks, there is at least a cleaner one. The Perfect Pasta Timer from Hammacher Schlemmer seeks to put an end to spaghetti-related repainting by providing an alternate means to measure the cooking time of pasta.
Pre-programmed with preferred cooking times for ten different pasta shapes, each with the option of al dente or regular, the timer makes it easy to get the results you want each and every time. As an added bonus, the timer is mounted on the end of a thermometer probe; no, not just to alert you when the water is hot enough to add pasta (a.k.a. rapidly boiling), but to give you something to grab onto while rooting around for it in a drawer.
Everybody has a method when it comes to cooking pasta. Some people like to throw a strand of spaghetti against the wall to see if it’s done, while others opt for cleaner walls and a more traditional taste test. No matter what method you use, or if you add salt or oil to the cooking pot, that pasta somehow, someway, has to come out of the water.
While every pot of pasta should come in contact with a strainer, in the real world that simply doesn’t always happen. Quite often, a fork is used to push back the pasta while the water is drained. It’s not a perfect solution, but it keeps dirty dishes to a minimum. Due to its flat design, the Silicone Pot Drainer by Trudeau doesn’t take up as much space as a colander, thus saving space and being easier to clean, but I just don’t imagine it faring too well piled high with a heaping bite of sauce and pasta. Long live the fork!
