Pasta-cooking persons: what size saucepan should I get? I think I need a BIG one.

[PrettyCandles]

What size saucepan to cook pasta for 5? My current biggest saucepan is barely big enough now, while my two boys are little - I'll soon need an even bigger one. What's a good size for mega-pasta meals (and stews etc)?

as big as possible! even if too big now you can fill it and free extra for odd 'ready meals'. I have a stockpot from Argos at £15 ish and full it feeds our family of 4 three or four times.

ours is 12" dia and 6" high

I usually use (for 4 of us, the ds's are 11 and nearly 9 so have bigger portions) my pressure cooker pan for doing pasta, obviously not with the lid, just the pan itself.

But, I am sure you can get proper pasta pans

Wow!

Get a proper past pan thing with the insert that you just lift out to drain the pasta we have one - think from the professional cookware co and it is great - comes with steamer insert too.

I do stews and chilli and everything in mine because without the inserts is really just one huge saucepan!

like this but ours is bigger but can;t find it on net!

we have an Ikea 5l pot with pasta insert- it does enough pasta for 6 hungry adults and a fussy child with ease. Same for spuds/ stew etc

the main thing about cooking pasta so it doesn't go all mushy is to have as much water as possible - so big saucepan is the answer!

Could someone help me do the arithmetic, please ? (I have a science degree, but a brain like porridge ATM - or should I say, like overcooked pasta!)

What diameter pan for what volume?

12" x 6" : 30cm x 15cm
V=Pi.D.H, so 3.14 x 30 x 15 = 1413 cm3.
Is that just under 1.5L?

I use a large stockpot.