How to drain pasta without a colander, without burning yourself

Note: this post is part of #100DaysToOffload, a challenge to publish 100 posts in 365 days. These posts are generally shorter and less polished than our normal posts; expect typos and unfiltered thoughts! View more posts in this series.

I have a reputation for laziness efficiency, and have always considered colanders to be a waste of resources. Unless you need your pasta totally dry (in which case you have other problems), draining directly from the pot works fine. So that’s what I've always done.

However, if you're not careful, it's easy to get a steam burn; and I think it's these preventable steam burns that drives the world's obsession with colanders. The first time I learned this trick for preventing steam burns, I was immensely pleased, and I've used it every time I drain pasta since.

To drain pasta from the pot, you have to hold the lid on. Sophisticates use dual hotpads (or dish towels) to clamp each side of the askew lid. This is a safe and reliable method that has the same issues as colanders: waste and complexity.

The fully grug-brained pasta draining method uses just hands, and pot. The problem: the lid has to be held on, askew, while the water is drained; the handle of the lid is generally in the middle; as the water is draining, it is pouring out, near boiling, inches below the hand holding the lid; steam rises from the water pouring out of the pot and burns the hand holding the lid.

(This applies both to long-handled pots, and to pasta pots with two handles, in which case one gets hooked over the sink to hold the pot in place, and the other is used to hold the pot. With pasta pots, the steam can get either hand, because it will also come out the gap where the lid is askew at the top)

The solution is beautifully simple: blow the steam away from your hand. As long as you pour the water out reasonably slowly, a steady stream of air passing over your hand (don’t faint!) will keep the temperature pleasant, no hot-mitts or colanders needed.