Kitchen Gadgets: Perfect Pasta Portions

Pasta is such a handy thing to have in the cupboard for those 'f*** this!' moments when you need something to eat in 11 minutes flat. Whether you go simple with fresh-tasting lemon spaghetti or rich spaghetti carbonara, few meals are as satisfying to eat. Very little comes close to the joy of noisily slurping long strands of pasta from your bowl.

I'm rubbish at guessing the amount of spaghetti I need to feed one or two people and always end up cooking too much. Normally, this is an added bonus (or the makings of a smug packed lunch the following day), but there have been times when my underestimation of just how much pasta swells when it cooks result in a silly quantity of carbs. This rather nifty sorter and tester, above, from Mocha will help you measure what you need for one or two people and take the guess-work out of pasta. It comes with a hooked tip to let you fish out a strand of spaghetti to test its doneness without scalding yourself. It's £5.99.

If you need somewhere to store your spaghetti, too, then this container it ideal. It has a genius cap that opens in stages to let out enough pasta for one to four portions. £19.99, from Amazon, is a bit more than a regular storage container, but considering how much you'll save by cooking the correct amount of spaghetti, it's probably worth it!

For those days when you could eat a horse (I'm sure it's been long enough since the horse meat scandal broke to safely make comments about horses and food in good taste) then this fantastic spaghetti measure from Maia Gifts is perfect! It also has a child, a woman and a man to measure your pasta on days when you want to 'rein' in your carb consumption. The horse actually gives you enough pasta for four people so if you're 'saddled' with feeding your friends, you're sorted. For £6.99, you'll never have a 'mare' measuring spaghetti again.

Love pasta as much as we do? Check out our top ten pasta recipes.