If you're a fan of cooking shows, you're likely familiar with Lidia Bastianich, the restaurateur and cookbook author who has taught home chefs Italian cooking since 1998. When it comes to pasta, it’s hard to think of a more qualified expert, so when Lidia tells us which unexpected tool she uses to strain pasta, we listen up.

While Bastianich is known for her Italian grandma persona and compendium of Italian cooking knowledge, the chef crosses cultural lines when it comes to straining pasta. Her tool of choice is a spider strainer, which is frequently used in Asian cooking and is typically used to pull food out of bubbling oil or blanching water.

A spider strainer, also known as a skimmer, is a small basket made out of chicken wire set at the end of a bamboo handle. Bastianich uses her spider strainer to pull pasta out of its boiling water, especially with short, shaped pasta rather than longer noodles, saying, "You just fish it out, it’s easy."