Alton Brown lifts al dente long pasta from boiling water with tongs, lets excess liquid drip, and transfers the noodles directly into a skillet with crumbled sausage. Draining by hand removes the need for a colander and speeds cooking by eliminating a trip to the sink. Tongs also allow stirring during cooking to prevent strands from sticking. The method suits long pastas such as fettuccine and pappardelle but fails for small shapes like fusilli or bow-tie, for which a slotted spoon or large strainer works better. Other colander-free options include mesh or spider strainers, chinois, or pouring off water under a lid.
He simply uses his tongs to grab a bunch of al dente spaghetti from the water, holds it aloft to drain some of the liquid off, and dumps it straight into the skillet beside it, which is full of crumbled sausage meat. While the TV personality has to repeat this process several times until he's removed all the noodles, it means he gets away with not having to wash a colander.
The other benefit of draining pasta by hand is that it makes cooking faster; the entire stage of taking a pot over to the sink to drain is eliminated. Plus, the tongs can be used to swirl the pasta around as it cooks to avoid the strands from sticking together. Now, this tip works magnificently for noodles of a long length, such as fettuccine or pappardelle; however, it won't work for smaller pasta shapes, like fusilli or bow tie pasta.
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