This TikTok Proves You've Been Draining Your Pasta Wrong This Whole Time

Pasta is a staple in many American households. In fact, according to Food Business News, the U.S. consumes more pasta than even Italy. Americans eat 2.7 million tons of pasta each year with the average American eating almost 20 pounds of this starchy meal. Pasta is both economical and filling enough to satiate those hunger pangs, so it makes a lot of sense that we like to eat it. It's also convenient and easy to make on those busy weeknights. And pasta can be dressed up or down depending on your taste preferences and the amount of energy you want to put into making a cheesy marinara sauce or pesto.

To make pasta all you have to do is boil a pot of salted water, add a box of your favorite shape to the boiling water, and cook it until it is al dente. Before you drain it, reserve a cup of water and then dump your pasta and the water into a colander or strainer in the sink. It doesn't get much easier than that. Or does it? Leave it to TikTok to show us a new way to drain pasta that may have you believing that you've been doing it all wrong for the entirety of your life. Or at the very least, it is going to make you wonder how you never thought to try this pasta draining hack before the advent of social media. 

In a TikTok video posted by a mom of four that has received almost a million likes, a woman demonstrates for viewers a whole new way to drain pasta and it will blow your mind how logical it is. With a caption bubble in the video, the TikToker wrote, "Show me the lifehack that you randomly saw one day that is now an unconscious standard in your life." She then proceeds to take her mesh strainer and put it in the pot of boiling pasta water — holding on tightly to the edges of the pot and the strainer — she dumps the water out. The pasta remains trapped in the pot as the strainer is inverted and water drains out. 

Next to the video, the mom wrote, "How was I doing this wrong my whole life? This was one of those Life Hacks that I use Every Day!" It does seem like a cool way to drain your pasta without it ever leaving the pot, but it also seems a little scary with more opportunities to burn your fingers or arms. The real question is will we see the likes of Giada De Laurentiis and Rachael Ray doing this hack?