If you’ve ever tried to shove dried spaghetti into a medium-sized pasta pot, wrestling with the strands of pasta as they half-soften enough to bend them into the vessel, you’re probably cooking your pasta in the wrong size pot. And you’re not alone.
In fact, Lexis Gonzalez, a New York City-based private chef and caterer, told HuffPost that the size of a pot is the first thing she looks for when she’s picking out cookware to make pasta in.
″[The pot] has to be large enough to accommodate a good portion of pasta and the height has to be tall enough because who likes spaghetti noodles hanging over the pot?” she said via email. “The pot also needs to hold heat well for a great boil. I love a good pot that has great heat distribution.”
Not to mention that if your pasta doesn’t all fit in the boiling water when the cooking process begins, it won’t ever be evenly cooked. Half your spaghetti will be al dente and half might be overcooked, which makes for a sad dinner.
Some pots even have built-in strainers that make draining excess pasta water way easier and don’t require to you have a separate strainer.
But if you’re unsure which pot to add to your cookware collection, fear not. Below, we rounded up expert-recommended picks from actual chefs and a couple of highly rated pasta pots that reviewers can’t get enough of.
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Promising review: "I am finished with burning my hands draining pasta or potatoes! I should have bought this many years ago. Good quality pot and the lift out pasta drainer is simply wonderful. My wrists and hands are thanking me with each use." — Liz Koster
Promising review: "Nice and big. Perfect for long pastas. Also used it for making a big batch of turkey stock, and it worked perfectly." — Joshua F.
"When boiling pasta, any appropriate-sized pot will get the job done. If I had to choose one, I’d recommend using Caraway products because they are non-toxic and free of chemicals," she said.
It comes in multiple colors, including yellow, cream, gray, sage green and navy blue.
Promising review: "The color is perfect and the pot is so nice we keep it on display. It’s the perfect size for all of our pasta and soup needs. It’s SO easy to clean and I can’t recommend caraway products enough. Can’t wait to get more!" — Claire S.
Promising review: "This is the best pan, not only for pasta, we use it to cook many things. The locking lid makes it easy to drain liquid. It is deep and big enough for large amounts of food but not too big to store in a cabinet. It's easy to clean and dishwasher safe. We have given this as a gift. Would recommend !" — Lee Wilder
Promising review: "Loved the quality of these, and the fact you can cook couscous or pasta or whatever in the pan while steaming veggies on top. The one with holes doubles as a colander too, useful for draining. I once had a plug-in steamer and it was a total pain to fill, clean and store... ridiculous in every way. This is what I should have bought back then." — James Jerome McCarthy
Promising review: "I wanted a pan that would be good for pasta dishes like cacio e pepe where you create the sauce in the pan with the pasta. I wanted something deep enough so there's no spillage, a slope to a narrow center to concentrate hard stirring, and I didn't want a coating so I could mix vigorously and not worry about damaging the coating or having the coating ending up in my food. This pan checked all the boxes, plus it's priced right." — J. Caputo
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