Al dente

In cooking, al dente /ælˈdɛnteɪ/ (Italian pronunciation: [al ˈdɛnte]) describes pasta or rice that is cooked to be firm to the bite.[1][2][3] The etymology is Italian "to the tooth".[4]

In contemporary Italian cooking, the term identifies the ideal consistency for pasta and involves a brief cooking time.[5][6] Molto al dente is the Italian term for slightly undercooked pasta.[1][7] Undercooking pasta is used in the first round of cooking when a pasta dish is going to be cooked twice.

According to the American Diabetes Association, pasta that is cooked al dente has a lower glycemic index than pasta that is cooked soft.[8] When cooking commercial pasta, the al dente phase occurs right after the white of the pasta center disappears.[3]