al dente

A pot of cooking spaghetti In cooking, pasta or risotto al dente (/ælˈdɛnteɪ/, Italian: [al ˈdɛnte]; lit. 'to the tooth') is cooked to be firm to the bite, requiring a brief cooking time. The term also extends to firmly-cooked vegetables. In contemporary Italian cooking, it is considered to be the ideal consistency for pasta.

Molto al dente is the Italian term for slightly undercooked pasta. When cooking commercial pasta, the al dente phase occurs right before the white of the pasta center disappears. The American Diabetes Association says that al dente pasta has a lower glycemic index than pasta that is cooked soft.