Perforated Pasta Drying Tray 30 x 40 x 10cm White Stackable

This tray is perforated through the base and all four walls, so air circulates under and around the pasta while it rests, drying the bottom layer at the same rate as the top. It holds ten litres on a 30 x 40 cm footprint that slides onto a domestic fridge shelf and stacks several deep when one tray is not enough, and because it is made in Italy from food-grade PE-HD rated from -40°C to +80°C, the same tray carries a batch from the worktop into the freezer and wipes clean afterwards. Most people buy it for pasta and end up using it for anything that needs air, from draining washed salad to drying herbs and chillies.

Why the Perforations Matter

Leave fresh tagliatelle in a bowl or seal it into a tub and it will sweat, stick to itself and turn claggy inside the hour, which is why Italian pasta makers rest their production in perforated trays rather than solid ones. Air has to reach the pasta from underneath as well as above, otherwise the bottom of the pile stays damp while the top dries, and that lower layer is the one that welds together.

In practice you work straight from the machine or the board, laying cut shapes in loosely with a dusting of semolina so they begin losing surface moisture immediately. Long shapes like tagliatelle and pappardelle sit well as nests, while garganelli, trofie, strozzapreti and orecchiette spread across the base in a single layer. Gnocchi gain most from the ventilation, since they stick more readily than anything else and suffer most from sitting on a damp surface.

How long you leave them depends on the shape and on what happens next: twenty minutes of air is usually enough before cooking, an hour or two firms the surface for bagging or freezing without the pieces fusing, and fully dried shapes will hold in the tray for a day.

Other Things That Need Air

Once one of these is in the kitchen it rarely stays a pasta-only tray. Washed salad, herbs and blanched vegetables drain in it rather than sitting in their own runoff, herbs, chillies and sliced mushrooms air-dry in it, cured and salted preparations rest in it while the moisture leaves, and baked goods cool in it without the undersides going soft. Anything you would otherwise spread across a tea towel on the worktop goes into a tray that stacks instead.

Size, Stacking and Storage

At 30 x 40 cm the tray fits most domestic fridge shelves and sits comfortably on a worktop beside a pasta machine, which makes it the practical size for making pasta at home or working in a small prep area. It is not a domestic tray exclusively, though, and delis, smaller restaurant kitchens and anywhere short on bench space use this size too, often three or four deep in a stack.

That stacking works because of the raised external base, which lifts the tray clear of the surface and lets the base of one tray cover the tray beneath it. A full batch of pasta then rests in a single column occupying one 30 x 40 footprint rather than spreading across the kitchen, and since our perforated and solid Genus Dei boxes share the same profile, you can mix them freely in the same stack. If you are producing at volume with a cold room to fill, the 60 x 40 tray is the better choice.

A Note on Pizza Dough

These do get sold as perforated dough boxes, so we will be straight with you: for proofing pizza dough they are not what we would recommend. Dough balls need their humidity held in, and the perforations let it escape, so the surface skins over and a wet dough will push into the holes and tear when you come to lift it out. Where a perforated tray does earn its place is knocking the heat out of freshly mixed dough quickly, or a short ventilated rest if a recipe calls for one. For a bulk rise or a cold ferment, use the solid 30 x 40 box with its lid, which is the industry standard for precisely this reason.

Adding a Lid

The matching 30 x 40 lid fits this tray, and what it gives you is protection rather than a seal. Sitting one on top keeps dust, flies and anything knocked off a shelf out of the tray while a batch is left on the bench or waiting in a fridge, and it guards the top of a stack. Because the tray itself is perforated, air keeps moving underneath, so pasta carries on drying with the lid in place. Bought together as a set the two save you 5%, and the rest of the range sits in dough boxes and storage.