The failure of most colanders is the foot. Drained water pools in the sink and the bottom of the colander sits in it, so the pasta at the base goes back into the water it just came out of. A tall footed ring holds the base a clear seventy millimetres above the sink floor.

Four and a half litres in 0.8 mm 18/10 stainless, which is heavy enough not to flex and dump a load when it is lifted full. The perforations are punched from the inside so the burrs face outward and nothing catches on the mesh. Two riveted handles rather than spot welds. Dishwasher safe.

What it is not: a substitute for the piece next to it in this course. We list what each thing does and where it stops, because a catalogue that only records strengths is one you cannot use to choose between two things.

Why this one. Prep tools are bought once and then used every single day, which inverts the usual value calculation — the difference between the adequate version and the good one is paid back inside a year and then keeps paying. We stocked the version whose failure mode we could name, and we have named it above.