Determining Doneness

Fresh pasta cooks more quickly than dried pasta, so there’s a smaller margin for error. The last thing you want is to have all your efforts turn to mush. We recommend tasting fresh pasta early and often as it cooks, since it can be ready for draining in as little as 2 minutes. To test filled pasta such as ravioli, remove one from the pot, cut off a small corner, and taste that.

This term is the hallmark of any well-cooked pasta. Your teeth should feel some resistance when you take a bite, but the pasta will be tender. Whether fresh or dried, pasta is a complex network of starch granules held together by protein. As the pasta is boiled, the starch granules on the surface absorb water and swell, and some eventually burst, releasing starch into the cooking water. The granules beneath the pasta’s surface don’t become as hydrated and swell without bursting. There are differences between al dente fresh pasta and al dente dried pasta. By its very nature, fresh pasta is always going to be softer and more hydrated than dried pasta, so al dente fresh pasta will be softer and silkier in texture than al dente dried pasta.