Just like in Japanese Ramen shops, these are great for pasta and lots of other things too!
These pasta baskets are very similar to what I have seen in Ramen shops in Japan. They hold around 1-2 servings of any kind of pasta and go right into a pot of boiling water. This lets you make pasta without needing to fish the pasta out of a big pot with a strainer or dump it through a colander. If you need to make several batches of pasta you can just keep using the same pot of boiling water, if you are doing several kinds of pasta with different cook times, these baskets let you put them in the same pot together and pull out the different kinds of pasta at different times. Even long pastas like spaghetti can be done in these, just drop in the spaghetti, some will stick out of the water at first but it will quickly soften and sink completely under the water.These are made with heavy wire and wooden handles, the baskets themselves are made from perforated metal which I think is more sturdy and easier to clean than ones made from wire mesh. They also have a hook to hold them on the rim of your boiling pot and another hook on the end of the handle you can use to hang them up.Besides just noodles, these would be very good for blanching/boiling vegetables, again because they stay in the strainer you just dunk them into the pot for the required time, pull them out with no straining needed. They would be great for cooking long asparagus spears where you want the bottom stem to be in the boiling water and the softer tips to be above it in the steam.I think this would also be good for boiling eggs since when they are done, you can just pull the basket out and dunk the whole thing in ice water to stop the eggs from overcooking and getting the dreaded "green ring" around the yolk.I think you could also use this as a steamer if you have a pot that's tall enough so you could put in an inch of water and have these baskets hang just above the water.I think the price is reasonable for two of these well made strainer baskets.