To cool your pasta faster when making a pasta salad, spread it on a sheet pan that has been refrigerated beforehand. Put it back in the fridge before adding the other ingredients.

To keep the pasta from sticking, toss it in some oil first. You can also cool the pan in the freezer to be quick or add the pasta to a room-temperature pan and then refrigerate it.

Unlike leaving pasta to cool in a bowl, spreading it out on a chilled sheet pan allows each piece to touch the cold surface without insulation, enabling it to cool down faster.