Al Dente Can Actually Be Healthier Than Overcooked Pasta. Here's Why

Few foods are as popular as pasta. In fact, the International Pasta Organisation (IPO) reports that, in 2023, global pasta production reached nearly 17 million tons, translating to about 80 million portions of pasta every day across 200 countries. While it's clear that, by and large, people love pasta, it is also a pantry staple that can sometimes get a bad rap healthwise. Is pasta healthy? No, not really. Are there ways to cook pasta to make it healthier? Yes.

Cooking pasta (no matter the shape of the noodle) to al dente — as opposed to overcooking it — is one of the ways that we can make it healthier. When we cook pasta al dente, it holds more starch, which is ultimately better for our digestion (and better for our overall health) compared to its overcooked counterpart. Like most cooking techniques, there is a science to follow for the best al dente pasta.

Pasta is generally composed of starch and gluten. While there are many variations of pasta — such as whole wheat, or multi-grain, or chickpea, not to mention the various ways of spiraling "noodles" out of our favorite veggies — this discussion will cover "plain" wheat pasta. When the starch and gluten are cooked in boiling water, the gluten absorbs the starch and the starch absorbs the water, causing the pasta to swell. The more the pasta swells, the more starch it releases into the cooking water. 

When pasta is boiled al dente, this typically means a shorter cooking time. Keeping the time short hydrates the starch but keeps it from releasing as much into the water. This process gives us the texture that we associate with al dente pasta ("al dente" translates from Italian as "to the tooth"). To describe that a bit more, the IPO refers to this texture as "nervous," noting that "the nerve" is the work put into physically chewing the pasta noodles — it's the pasta's resistance to being cut up.

Cooking pasta in this way has a few benefits. First, because chewing al dente pasta takes more effort (albeit marginally), this better stimulates the receptors of feeling satisfied or "full," reducing our urge to overeat. Additionally, the starch in al dente pasta is digested more gradually, which means our absorption of the glucose within the starch is slower. This lowers our insulin production stimulation, therefore preventing blood sugar spikes.

There isn't a complete consensus on how al dente to cook pasta, but there are a few rules of thumb to follow and a few classic pasta-making mistakes to avoid. To start, make sure you're using a big enough pot, with enough water and enough salt added to that water. If you have the wrong pot size or water ratio, your pasta can release more of that starch than you intend, so the setup is important, here. If you are using boxed pasta, the cooking time is there for you — just remember to shave off a minute or two. 

Some brands even offer specific al dente cooking times in the directions. If you're using fresh pasta, depending on the noodle shape, the pasta could be done in as little as two minutes. Just make sure that you're adding the pasta to already-boiling water and that you are taste testing your pasta. As mentioned above, you will want to cook the pasta a little less than you typically would. You can tell that your pasta is al dente if, when you bite into your taste test, you see just a bit of white at the center of the noodle. 

This indicates that those starches on the inside haven't been released, giving the pasta the "nervous" texture. It is recommended to then drain the pasta and finish cooking it in the sauce (depending on the dish). And others say it pays to cook pasta directly in the sauce because it saves time and minimizes clean-up. No matter which shape of noodle or dish of pasta you enjoy, keep these al dente tips in the back of your mind to make them a little bit healthier.