Pasta really can be over- or undercooked – and you can tell by tossing it at the wall!
It goes without saying that pasta can be undercooked, a fact to which
anyone who has ever eaten stiff or overly chewy spaghetti or penne
noodles can attest. However, overcooking pasta is also a big concern in
Italy, where the term “al dente” is household language to describe the
moment in a pasta cooking cycle when the noodles have reached the
perfect level of preparation. Believe it or not, Italian chefs actually
do judge the al dente perfection of their spaghetti by throwing noodles
against the wall to see if they stick. As soon as sticking is achieved,
the noodles are done. Be careful with this method though, because pasta
will also stick to the wall when it is overcooked. And while slightly
overcooked spaghetti will probably taste fine when piled high with
tomato sauce, meatballs, and parmesan cheese, it actually is inferior in
ways other than taste: studies have shown that overcooked pasta is more
difficult to process and digest than pasta cooked to al dente
perfection.
