Pasta has been cooked in boiling water for centuries, but the dedicated pasta pot is a comparatively modern convenience. It combines two of the most familiar pieces of kitchen equipment into one surprisingly useful tool.

That pairing makes sense. Pasta needs water to cook, but at some point the water and pasta have to part company.

The history of the pasta pot begins with the colander. According to the Pasta Museum in Italy, perforated vessels may have evolved from ancient strainers used in winemaking, with examples made from terracotta and later bronze.

By the Middle Ages, cooks had adapted the idea specifically for pasta. A Genoese document from 1363 mentions the caza lasagnaria, a perforated utensil used by lasagnari to separate cooked pasta from its liquid.

The familiar bowl-shaped colander came later. Bartolomeo Scappi, one of Renaissance Italy's most famous cooks, included a copper perforated vessel called a foratoro in his 1570 cookbook.

For generations, that basic arrangement worked perfectly well. Pasta boiled in one pot and was carried to a separate colander for draining.

The modern pasta pot eliminates that last trip across the kitchen. A perforated insert nests inside the cooking pot, so the pasta can be lifted directly from the water while the cooking liquid remains below.

That second part can be especially useful today. Many pasta recipes call for some of the starchy cooking water to be added to the sauce, where it helps bring fat, cheese and liquid together. Lifting the pasta from its water instead of pouring everything into the sink leaves that useful ingredient behind.

Some pasta pots take the idea further. Large versions can hold several perforated baskets, borrowing a design familiar in restaurant kitchens where different portions or foods may need to cook in the same boiling water.

Not every pasta pot is enormous. Some are noticeably tall and narrow, a shape particularly suited to spaghetti and other long pasta.

The Wagensteiger model follows this approach with a 4.3-liter stainless steel pot and perforated basket. Its narrow shape also makes it useful for asparagus and other vegetables, showing how the pasta pot has evolved into a more versatile piece of cookware.

That versatility matters in a home kitchen. A specialized pot earns its cabinet space more easily when it can also steam vegetables, boil potatoes, or handle other everyday jobs.

Larger multipots extend the same idea by combining a stockpot, deep pasta insert, and shallower steaming basket. Instead of being a single-purpose pasta cooker, the pot becomes a small cooking system.

The Cooks Standard version includes a 12-quart stainless steel stockpot, pasta insert, steamer insert, and lid. The design works across several types of cooktops, including induction, and turns the old pot-and-colander combination into something considerably more flexible.

The underlying idea, however, would have been recognizable centuries ago. Pasta still goes into hot water and a perforated vessel still separates it from that water when dinner is ready.

The clever part of the modern pasta pot is simply that someone finally decided the two belonged together.

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