Itâs the worst way to cook pasta
By Jessica Berget, Opinions Editor
As someone who eats an abundance of pasta and noodles, I donât mind saying how much I hate the widely accepted standard of cooking noodles âal dente.â Hear me out, I know every pasta recipe out there says âcook till al dente,â but Iâm telling you, this is the worst way to cook pasta. Itâs a terrible standard for noodle cookery and we should stop adhering to it.
âAl denteâ in Italian means âto the tooth.â In other words, it should be firm to the bite. However, I canât imagine anything more unappetizing than biting into a hard, firm noodle. In my opinion, noodles should be soft and chewy. That way, they can absorb more of the flavour of the sauce and it also gives the pasta a nice, soft texture that is easier (and more enjoyable) to eat.
Al dente, to me, means it isnât fully cooked, and I donât like to eat undercooked food, especially pasta. The thought is so unpleasant that itâs enough to make me never eat pasta again (almost).
Many chefs or food blogs will say that youâre supposed to cook pasta until itâs cooked almost all the way through because it will keep cooking after itâs off the heat. However, in my experience this has never been the case. In the past, when Iâve cooked my noodles al dente and kept them on a heat source, even after serving they have still been too firm for my taste. Call me crazy, but Iâve made the decision to start cooking my noodles until theyâre soft and almost soggy, and I havenât looked back since. Some would call that overcooked; I call it dinner.
I know everyone has their own standard when it comes to cooking noodles, but al dente really should not be the universal guideline. It may be a widely accepted principle for noodle-cooking, but you donât have to follow it just because everyone else says to do it this way. Try cooking your pasta until itâs soft or fully cooked for a change and experience your true noodle potential.
