Pick up this one essential tool to make the most perfect pasta ever

I like to think I’m pretty easygoing in the kitchen – I don’t need tons of specialty gadgets or high-tech tools when I’m cooking. The beauty of Italian food is its homey simplicity, a tradition created by centuries of nonnas working with just good ingredients and tons of love. And pasta is the simplest of all; iconic dishes like cacio e pepe or pasta pomodoro require just a handful of everyday ingredients and no fancy techniques, yet the finished product is out-of-this-world good.

That said, there’s one special tool the nonnas and I swear by when we’re cooking pasta – and if you don’t have one, chances are your pasta isn’t turning out as delicious as it could be. The secret to a silky, spaghetti-coating sauce is adding some of the starch-filled pasta water to your pan, rather than sending it all down the drain. But how do you get perfectly al dente pasta without dumping out its cooking water? A pasta fork. 

This simple tool is designed for corralling slippery, straight-from-the-pot pasta so you can get it out of the boiling water quickly. It’s so important, I designed one for my Williams Sonoma collection of cook’s tools, with a stay-cool wood handle that’s a lifesaver when you’re working over a boiling pot. No matter the shape you’re cooking with, the pasta fork’s combination of deep, slotted bowl (for scooping up small shapes like rotini or penne) and grabby tines (to catch long strands of spaghetti or linguine) can handle it! You’re left with a full pot of pasta water to dip into as you finish your sauce, guaranteeing the best plate of pasta you’ve ever made.