‘Not as snobby as it might sound': Silvia Colloca on why cooking pasta al dente matters
Italian-Australian TV personality and cookbook author Silvia Colloca makes fresh pasta four days a week at the northern beaches Sydney home she shares with her husband, actor Richard Roxburgh, and their three children. But when she's eating out, it's almost the last thing she'd order – unless it meets her strict standards.
'It's imperative the pasta is not overcooked,' says Colloca, who will share a heaped helping of her cooking knowledge in the third series of Silvia's Italian Masterclass when it airs on Network Ten later this year.
'The concept of al dente [resistance to the tooth] matters to Italians and it matters to me. It's more important than you think and not as snobby as it might sound.
'It mostly applies to dry pasta,' she says. 'As a rule of thumb, if the packet says 11 minutes, take it out after 9 or 10 minutes because it continues to cook with the residual heat.'
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