One of my biggest takeaways from working in one of the top Italian restaurants in NYC was to never discard pasta water. On the line, large pasta baskets are used to transfer pasta out of boiling water directly into a saucy skillet, but bulky baskets aren’t ideal for home cooking. That’s why I am letting you in on my secret to making restaurant-quality pasta at home: the handheld strainer, also known as a spider.
