If you know any folks in their 20s who live on their own, chances are they use low-cost and simple-to-use countertop cooking appliances to whip up dinner.

For my son, a big rice eater, it’s an old rice cooker, a second-hand machine made sometime in the ’90s that we used here at home until he packed it up and took it with him to college.

My daughter’s more of a pasta person, which means if she wants to make a noodle dinner, she’s boiling noodles in a pot and straining them with a colander. Sure, easy enough, but definitely not rice-cooker easy.

So why hasn’t there been something akin to a rice cooker for pasta, one of the world’s most popular foods?

That’s a question Patrick Tannous has been asking himself for more than a decade, after one night he stumbled onto the idea while boiling noodles after work. He was living in a crowded Chicago apartment with seven roommates and running a tea business when, after making pasta, he realized someone had taken the apartment’s colander upstairs and locked it away in their room.

“I’m looking around like, how am I going to strain this?” said Tannous. “And sitting on the counter, I saw my tea brewer.”

The tea brewer used a gravity-fed dispensing mechanism that released liquid from the bottom. Tannous dumped the pasta into it, drained the water, and realized he may have discovered a new way to make pasta.

From there, Tannous and a friend began “MacGyvering” early prototypes using paper clips and modified tea equipment before eventually filing for a patent. A decade later, he got an email notification that the patent had been issued.

The appliance resembles a modern electric kettle, but with a built-in valve and straining system. Users add water and pasta, set a timer, and, once cooking is complete, press a trigger that releases the boiling water through an integrated sieve, leaving the pasta behind.

Part of the appeal, according to Tannous, is reducing friction around one of the world’s most universally consumed foods.

“Why was making pasta so hard and required so many pieces?” he said. “You need a colander, you need a pot, you need your hand warmers so you don’t burn your hands.”

The appliance is part of a broader shift toward compact, single-purpose countertop appliances designed for apartments, dorm rooms, Airbnbs, and smaller kitchens. And while rice cookers have long become a staple appliance around the world, pasta has somehow never received the same dedicated countertop treatment.

Tannous says he spent years anxiously searching for similar products while waiting for the patent to clear.

“I thought someone’s gotta be doing this,” he said. “Like, how has this not come out yet?”

Now that the patent is secured, Tannous and his team are seeking manufacturing and retail partners to help bring the idea to market. Whether consumers ultimately embrace a dedicated pasta appliance remains to be seen, but in an era of air fryers and nugget ice makers, my guess is this concept may eventually find its audience.

Like, you know, my pasta-loving daughter.

You can watch my full interview with Tannous below.