What utensil is named on Wikipedia as used to drain cooked spaghetti?

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A colander is the utensil named on Wikipedia for draining cooked spaghetti.

After spaghetti is boiled in a large pot of salted water, the pasta is transferred to a colander, whose perforated bowl lets the cooking water escape while retaining the noodles. The same utensil is also commonly used to rinse vegetables, drain canned foods, and strain other solid ingredients.

A colander is not the same as a sieve. A colander normally has larger holes and a bowl-like shape, while a sieve uses a much finer mesh for filtering liquids or powders. A pasta strainer is another common name for a colander.

Italian cooking also uses a pasta-specific word: scolapasta. Some cooks instead lift spaghetti directly from the pot with tongs or a pasta fork, especially when they want to preserve some starchy cooking water for the sauce. But for the straightforward draining step described here, “colander” is the standard answer.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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