Spaghetti Cookware

Pasta pot

If you tend to cook a lot of pasta or if you have trouble carrying heavy pans, it could be a good idea to invest in a pasta pot.

A pasta pot is a large stainless steel pan with an integrated metal colander insert. The pasta is placed in the pan with boiling water as usual, then once you have finished cooking you can simply lift out the insert and it will drain your pasta straight into the pan below. This is much easier than carrying a heavy pan to the sink and trying to tip it into a colander, particularly if you are cooking large quantities.

Pasta pots are popular in Italian restaurants as they retain the water that the pasta has been boiled in so it can be re-used again and again. This results in a high level of starch building up in the water towards the end of the night, which is perfect to add to sauces to bind them together. It will make the sauce cling to the pasta, resulting in a tastier spaghetti dish.

Pasta claw

A heavyweight pasta claw is the ideal serving tool for spaghetti. Spaghetti in sauce or coated with oil is likely to slip off a wooden spoon. Metal forks can only dish up small quantities at a time, and often slice through the pasta. However, a stainless steel pasta server with a generous bowl and prongs will allow you to easily scoop servings of spaghetti, linguine or tagliatelle from a pan. Most servers also have small holes or slots to allow any excess liquids to drain, and long handles to keep your hands away from the heat.

Pasta machine

Although one of the major benefits of cooking with pasta is the convenience dried pasta affords, if you do have the time to invest then fresh pasta is well worth the effort. Fresh pasta is delicious yet often very expensive to buy in supermarkets, but making it yourself requires only flour, eggs and salt.

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To make pasta with a machine, simply take 600g of flour (Tipo '00' flour is best) and make a large crater on your kitchen surface. Break 6 eggs into the well in the centre, add a pinch of salt, and beat with a fork until smooth. Using your fingers, work the flour into the eggs until you have a smooth doughy mixture. Continue kneading until the texture changes from a rough, floury feel to smooth and silky. You'll need plenty of elbow grease for this!

Clamp the pasta machine firmly to a clean work surface, giving yourself as much room as possible, and dust the surface with flour. Make a dough ball approximately the size of a large orange, and pass it through the pasta maker on the widest setting. Fold it in half, turn it 45 degrees, and pass it through the pasta maker again. Repeat this process 8 times. If it begins to stick at any point, dust it with more flour.

By the time it has gone through the rollers 8 times, you should feel the texture of the pasta has become much smoother. Tighten the rollers by one setting and pass the sheet of pasta through again. Then tighten it by one more and repeat. Continue until your pasta is the thickness you desire. For spaghetti this should be somewhere between a beer mat and a credit card.

Use the spaghetti cutter attachment to slice your pasta sheet into spaghetti and cook immediately for the best results. However, it can also be dried (drape across a drying rack until it becomes hard and brittle) and stored for future use.

Fresh pasta is more absorbent than dried and takes on more of the flavours of the sauce. For this reason, it is ideal with buttery, creamy sauces or those with delicate flavours.

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