Al dente

Cooking spaghetti

Al dente is a term used when cooking. It comes from Italian, and is used for pasta, rice, and sometimes vegetables. It means that the item (for example the spaghetti) are cooked, so that they are soft, but they are still firm to the bite. Usually, cooking something al dente involves a short cooking time. Commercial pasta often specifies the cooking time (for al dente).

A counter-example may be risotto: When preparing Italian-style risotto, the rice is usually cooked until it is totally soft.