Talk:Al dente

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It is unclear from the opening sentence whether this should be used as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. Michael Hardy 01:45, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

It can be used as an adjective (pasta al dente) or as an adverb (to cook al dente) Aragost 17:55, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] cooking method?

I remember being told that a critical part of making pasta al dente was the procedure: salting the water, getting the water to a furious, rolling boil before adding the pasta, and most importantly cooking in an uncovered pot. Are these necessary steps, or is it simply much more difficult to reach the al dente stage without overcooking when you cover the pot, add the pasta too early, leave out the salt, etc.?

I am pretty sure that fat does not tend to make pasta not stick together. The stickiness comes from excess gluten, which gets washed away in the colander after the pasta is drained. Tossing the pasta with oil or fat is unnecessary, except if you like the taste of it that way. Suchire 18:55, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] cooking time

One of the most important indicators of cooking pasta al dente is the cooking time mentioned on the package. This is especially true of Italian pasta manufacturers such as Barilla and others, all of whom clearly state cooking time on the box for each kind of pasta. Some varieties of pasta cook to the al dente stage faster than others. The cooking time always indicates the time from when the pasta is added to salted boiling water to when it is drained (as opposed to bringing the water and pasta to a boil together which will always result in pasta scotta, i.e. overcooked pasta.

[edit] History of the Phrase?

I don't have any evidence of this, but "al dente" sounds like an abbreviation of an earlier, longer phrase, e.g. "firm to the tooth", which then became shortened to just "to the tooth". Can anyone confirm or disconfirm this? Fried Gold 17:20, 23 July 2007 (UTC)