But Why Should Pasta Be Cooked Al Dente?

They know that it 'should be' cooked al dente, ---the pasta into glucose - or lowers the glycemic index of the pasta. Lower glycemic indexes have health benefits according to most studies....

But Why Should Pasta Be Cooked Al Dente?

"With no outlet for my feelings, I stared at the phone in my hand until I remembered the spaghetti. Back in the kitchen, I turned off the gas and poured the contents of the pot into a colander. Thanks to the phone call, the spaghetti was a little softer than al dente, but it had not been dealt a mortal blow. I started eating-and thinking." The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami's narrator is typical of most non-Italians when it comes to cooking pasta. They know that it 'should be' cooked al dente, but they're not going to lose a lot of sleep over it. Al dente is, according to - amongst other - Lidia Bastianich, the famous Italian media cook in America, one of the most difficult concepts in Italian cooking to get across. It is, though, one of the most fundamental.

Why do we say al dente?

There are a number of theories to this, but the most widely accepted and most sensible is simply that the pasta is tested, to see if it's ready, by biting into it. It should not be uncooked, nor should it be soft - so there should be a slight resistance to the teeth - al dente in Italian.

But why should pasta be cooked al dente?

There are a number of good reasons, apart from simple tradition. Firstly, pasta nearly always interacts with a sauce, and when cooked al dente it 'takes on' the sauce more efficiently.

The second reason, according to generations of Italian grandmothers, is that the pasta is more easily digested when it's cooked al dente. There is a certain amount of truth to this, although it might be better to say that the pasta is better digested when cooked al dente, because in actual fact it slows the breaking down of the carbohydrates in the pasta into glucose - or lowers the glycemic index of the pasta. Lower glycemic indexes have health benefits according to most studies.


Franita C. is an Italian housewife living in Bologna, who is a regular contributor to http://www.italian-regional-recipes.com, an Italian food blog with recipes, tips, notes and articles on great Italian cooking.
By Franita C.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/