What Does Al Dente Mean?

 

Let’s be real: There’s maybe nothing more heartbreaking come dinnertime than overcooked, mushy pasta. Not even the best pasta sauces can fix that travesty! To avoid it, most recipes call for pasta cooked al dente, a term that’s used to describe the toothsome (it literally means “to the tooth” in Italian), slight bite that pasta should retain when it’s perfectly cooked. Learning to cook your pasta to al dente will elevate all of your future pasta nights; it’s worth it to get it right. Here’s what you need to know.