Honestly, we don’t find it such an imposition to cook our pasta in one pot while stirring our sauce in another. In fact, on a good day we revel in dirtying as many pots and pans as possible while cooking the abundance of fresh and delicious Italian ingredients available in Rome. But not so for superstar chef Alain Ducasse who has decided that too many pots spoil the pasta and has teamed up with designer Patrick Jouin and the Italian design gurus at Alessi to create the Pasta Pot, a specially designed cooking vessel that lets you cook pasta and sauce all at once.
Ducasse, who provides recipes on the Alessi website that enable successful use of the new pot, explains our need for this new and innovative way of cooking pasta:
The integrity of an ancient cooking method adapted to the necessities of modern life: that’s what the Pasta Pot gives you. With this type of cooking, called ‘by concentration’, the starch keeps the pasta together and the undiluted flavours retain their intensity. The result is a wholesome, natural, exceptionally tasty dish that’s quick and easy to prepare.
And Alberto Alessi chimes in with commentary that explains more precisely how the pot works as he revels in the beauty of its design:
Every step of the cooking process is amalgamated: first you put the dry pasta in the “Pasta Pot”, sautéing lightly if you wish; then the various ingredients of whichever sauce you wish to make; then last comes water or broth, all at once or gradually, cooking everything together with the specially designed cover, stirring occasionally. In just a little more time than normally required to boil the pasta according to the classic method, your pasta with sauce is done. And preparation has required only a single pot, which you can – indeed must – bring to the table and serve directly from its special trivet.
