The Fine Cooking Test Kitchen

The Fine Cooking Test Kitchen


Surefire al dente

comments (6) January 27th, 2009 in Blogs
LauraGiannatempo Laura Giannatempo, contributor
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Ever noticed that if you cook pasta “according to package instructions,” as many recipes indicate, you often wind up with overcooked pasta that’s a bit softer than the ideal toothsome al dente? I have a little tip (that I share with FC Test Kitchen Associate Allison Ehri Kreitler) for cooking pasta to al dente perfection: Always cook it 1 or 2 minutes less than the lowest time indicated on the box. Why? Because that cooking time yields a pasta that’s usually already on the soft side of al dente. Then, chances are you’ll be tossing the pasta with a warm sauce in a skillet, where it will continue to cook. You want to drain your pasta when it’s just shy of al dente to leave some wiggle room for that carryover cooking in the skillet.

posted in: Blogs, pasta, al dente
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Comments (6)

DJMe writes: Growing up The Italians in my neighborhood would throw a piece of Spaghetti against the wall, if it stuck there it was finished, if it fell to the ground it needed to cook longer (or this may have been the other way around) I'm not sure why this works and i prefer the "tasting" method anyway. Posted: 6:34 am on August 9th

vega writes: I will set my timer for 3 minutes less than the package suggests. I know it will be close then and I start tasting. I can usually tell just by looking at the pasta Posted: 5:51 pm on July 16th

aqn writes: IMHO, "just taste it" is not so foolproof. One can't just turn off the heat when the pasta tastes "done enough" because, after that point, the pasta continues to cook from the residual heat. Also, pasta of varying sizes will hold different amounts of heat and will continue to cook at different rates post-heat, so one can't guarantee that a specific underdone-ness will result in the same doneness for all pastas.

True, one can stop or retard the cooking by running the pasta under cold water, but some recipes call for transferring the pasta directly from water to sauce.

What's the solution? Unless one cooks things only once and never again :) , experiment! Use the same pot, same burner, same heat, same amount of salt and water each time and record the cooking time to the necessary doneness for different pasta and different recipes. Posted: 3:56 pm on February 20th

LauraGiannatempo writes: Hey there--Thanks for your comments. I agree that tasting is the ultimate test for donenes. But for those who like to have a time frame (and sometimes I find that useful if I'm doing other things and might forget about the boiling pasta), I find this useful. And of course, it's only for people who like their pasta al dente. If you like it softer, by all means cook it longer! Posted: 12:47 pm on February 3rd

guajillo55 writes: I'm with BertC. Just start tasting the pasta after a few minutes to see when it's done to your liking. Shaving 1 or 2 minutes off the package instructions, as Ms. Giannatempo recommends, seems a little random. There are so many variables -- how much water you use, how big the pot is, how powerful your burner is, etc. -- that it doesn't make much sense to use the package even as a general gauge. Besides, some people might like their pasta softer than al dente. And who is to say their wrong? Posted: 2:39 am on January 29th

BertC writes: I just taste it. For me that's fool proof. Posted: 7:59 pm on January 28th

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