Coming from a family one side of which is (southern)
Italian, I know a great deal about pasta, having consumed,
cooked, and made huge quantities of it in my younger days.
In our family pasta was always cooked "al dente" and pasta
that was even a bit beyond "al dente" was rejected. Watching
a lot of cooking shows on TV nowadays I see them cooking the
pasta "al dente" and then they dump this carefully cooked
pasta into a pan containing the sauce and proceed to expose
it to heat for another 5-10 minutes! Doesn't this turn it
into mush? Where and when did this vile technique develop?

--
Bob

Kanyak's Doghouse
http://www.kanyak.com