What's the purpose of a pasta pot?

[Anonymous]

My mil gave us her old pasta pot when she learned we didn't own one. It is a big 2pc stainless steel thing with the larger pot and strainer insert. I tried using it a couple times, and it just seems to make things harder. 1) it fits less pasta because of the smaller insert. Things like spaghetti doesn't get completely submerged unless I use a ton of water. 2) it takes an extra step to drain. I have to get a plate, to set down the strainer after pulling the cooked pasta out. Then I dump the water out of the of the big pot. Then I can dump the pasta back in the pot. 3) it takes up room in my cabinets, the thing is huge.

I don't understand why this is better than just a regular pot. Am I missing something here? Or should I just chuck it?

The pasta thing is a mystery to me. When mil recently tasked me with boiling pasta, apparently I was screwing up at every turn. I tried to put a lid on the pot of water to make it boil faster. Apparently I'm not supposed to use a lid when boiling water for pasta. ???? Then I took the colander insert out when the pasta was done and set it on a plate. (Have absolutely no idea how to use these things). She wanted buttered pasta so I put a couple tbs of butter on top to melt. Ah, she freaked! Apparently I was supposed to drain in the colander insert, then dump into a another colander in the sink and rinse with tap water to prevent sticking? Then put it in a crock pot. Then melt butter separately in a ramekin and pour the melted butter on top. I'm thinking, wow, that's 5 cookware pieces to just prepare one part of a meal!!!

[Anonymous]

Your MIL is a freak show.

Take the pot to goodwill or give it back to her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your MIL is a freak show.

Take the pot to goodwill or give it back to her.

A freak show? Because she gave a pasta pot?

[Anonymous]

I gave my pasta pot to the thrift store when I was decluttering. Your MIL's way is hard to believe. WTH with the crock pot, 2 colanders....

[Anonymous]

I wanted a pasta pot. I bought one. I hate it. The end.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand the problem. You take both pots to the sink, lift up the insert to drain it. Run tap water through the insert and pasta. Done. No need to put drained pasta back into the big pot.

[Anonymous]

You're not supposed to rinse pasta. It washes the starch off.

[Anonymous]

You take the strainer out of the pot, dump the pasta into the serving bowl, add the sauce. You do not rinse cooked pasta.

You can shove the strainer back into the pot with the water if you don't have the space to clean it right away.

[Anonymous]

When someone wants food, they are presented it, and they do not get to watch the method of making it.

I have what I call a pasta pot - it's a two quart pot. I cook pasta in it. Thus, a pasta pot!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your MIL is a freak show.

Take the pot to goodwill or give it back to her.

A freak show? Because she gave a pasta pot?

No, because she has to use a million dishes to make buttered pasta.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you don't know how to make pasta and you don't want to learn from your mother in law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you don't know how to make pasta and you don't want to learn from your mother in law.

+1. Is this the lightly fried tuna lady? The drama is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

In my mil's defense, I was helping her with the pasta at her house for a formal dinner, so I get that she wanted things done a certain way. She's old school and she likes to prepare things the "proper" way. I'm a shortcut kind of person and I love making one pot meals and I clean as I go. After my mil makes a meal, the kitchen looks like it exploded and it takes a major clean up afterwards. Just different styles of cooking.

I'm all for learning from her, but the pasta thing just boggled my mind and I wondered if there was reasoning to why she wanted it done that way. And I wondered if someone could simply explain to me the proper way I'm supposed to use a pasta pot. I can't ask her these things. She's horrible at explaining things - she's either secretive or acts like "how come you don't already know this, are you a comple idiot?" She doesn't say that but that's her tone.

And you guys did explain how to use the pasta pot so thank you. So you dump right into the serving bowl from the colander insert- that makes sense. And for some reason it never occurred to me to bring BOTH pots to the sink. And pior to this, I never knew you could rinse pasta. I always just did a quick drain in the sink and threw it back in the pot with a little leftover pasta water to keep it from sticking until I was ready to combine with the sauce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're not supposed to rinse pasta. It washes the starch off.

I thought it cooled the pasta so it stopped cooking?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not supposed to rinse pasta. It washes the starch off.

I thought it cooled the pasta so it stopped cooking?

That's why you don't wait until it's mushy before taking it out and cook pasta to al dente. Why would you want to cool down hot pasta?

OP, your MIl may have lots of dinner parties, but she doesn't actually "know" how to cook pasta. Cook to al dente, drain, throw in the butter. The on,y thin you might want to do is cut up the butter a little first, so it more evenly distributes quickly and some parts don't get clumpy whole waiting for the butter to finish melting from the heat of the pasta.