How do I tell if my pasta is molto al dente?

Question

I cooked pasta tonight for my families dinner, and cooked it "al dente" then cooked it in the sauce. Surprise surprise it was overdone. So I looked it up and apparently it needs to be "molto al dente". So now I'm just wondering how will I be able to tell if my pasta is "molto al dente" and what is the definition of "molto al dente"?

Answer 1

How to see if your pasta is "al dente":

If your pasta cooks about in 10 minutes (for example), when you put pasta into the boiling water take one pasta after 8 minute (about 20% before the time of cook), bite it and observe the pasta: the external is more yellow than the internal that is white. When the internal white disappears the pasta has cooked "normale", when the internal white is small the pasta is "al dente".

Greetings from Italy

Everybody know cooking, not everybody speak english very well

Answer 2

Generally on the pasta bag is indicated the cooking time for "al dente" and "normale". It depends on the type of pasta, since different types need different cooking times. "al dente" means that the pasta should feel quite hard under yout teeth. For instance, for spaghetti with 12 minutes normal cooking time, "al dente" means about 10 min, "molto al dente" is around 8-9 min. So, just as a rule of thumb, take the normal cooking time indicated on the box, and consider about 20% less for "al dente", and 30% for "molto al dente".