al dente

The tradition & historical record

In Italian cooking, pasta or risotto is cooked in a brief cooking time until they are firm when bitten or al dente (, Italian: [al ˈdɛnte]; lit. 'to the tooth'). The term also extends to firmly-cooked vegetables. The state is considered the ideal consistency for pasta, it cannot be overcooked. Molto al dente is the Italian term for slightly undercooked pasta. When cooking commercial pasta, the al dente phase occurs right before the white of the pasta center disappears. The American Diabetes Association says that al dente pasta has a lower glycemic index than pasta that is cooked soft. For centuries in Italy, the ideal pasta was very soft, and chefs such as the 15th century chef Martino da Como recommended cooking pasta for hours to achieve the desired texture. The resulting pasta's softness influenced how it was served. At the time, the leading physicians of Italy followed Hippocrates and Galen, who maintained contraria contrariis curantur ('opposites cure opposites'). As a result, they recommended pasta be served with dried spices and pepper, as well as cheese, particularly the dry, aged varieties. As pasta was slippery when eaten with the hands, historian Massimo Montanari credits this with promoting the use of forks. Records of pasta being cooked for a shorter time start in 17th century Naples. At first, this was restricted to fresh pasta. It was not until the mid-19th century that a short cooktime and firm texture became the norm for all pastas. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Al dente”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

al dente is way to cook pasta, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²