Overcooked pasta

I recently recommended Rocky's to someone asking about spaghetti and meatballs. I think Rocky's has some good products, tasty sauce, and very good meatballs. They have one problem however, that drives me crazy. I often like to go there for lunch after church on Sunday and I ordered penne and meatballs. The penne was way overcooked. I ate it and didn't complain but left some of the penne on the plate. Frankly, it was cooked to the point of being tasteless and had I not been hungry, probably inedible.

I know that Rocky's can do this well; they have done it before. It is the inconsistency that is annoying. The bigger question to me, however, is this. Why is it that so many places overcook their pasta? I run into this all the time. Additionally, if I use the phrase 'al dente' I get met with blank stares from servers. I am Italian and maybe that makes me picky about my pasta, but I cannot figure out how an Italian restaurant can have servers that do not know the words 'al dente,' and worse, have kitchens that are cooking pasta into mush.

I feel badly about ranting about Rocky's as it is one of my favorite places. I actually ate lunch there today (not pasta) and I do hope they get it together. I suspect pasta is not going to be something I'm going to order there however. I just cannot understand why pasta is such an ongoing problem for places when it is really very easy to cook.

I doubt they cook it "to order". Large batches get cooked and it goes soft.

I doubt they cook it "to order". Large batches get cooked and it goes soft.

BINGO! It only takes 7 mins. to properly cook most pasta, why oh why does no one want to cook it to order these days??? In one of the first kitchens I worked in, we cooked off large batches of penne and even spaghetti before lunch service and shocked it, then stored it in a cold table in a 3rd pan and used it WELL INTO DINNER service. Needless to say, by that time it was so mush that serving it would have been a crime. That was one of the first things I fixed when I got in a position to do so. It's just gross and there is no real reason to do it.

This has got to be one of my more highly ranked food related pet peeves! I don't care what your flavor preferences are or if you are an east coaster/west coaster/mid westerner/southerner - mushy pasta is just nasty! Unfortunately, I have encountered this at restaurants from every quality level. I firmly believe that overcooked pasta is an insult to a good flavorful sauce and have received countless blank stares when I have asked for "al dente".