Originally Posted by
der_saeufer
Not for standard wheat pasta. It takes 2-3 minutes to get from al dente to soft and for most shapes no one is going to notice an extra 30 seconds, which is an eternity in a busy kitchen with a chirping timer.
The only reason you get soft pasta in a restaurant is because it was deliberately overcooked.
...and this is why. An appalling number of people also cook pasta without salt in the water.
When I know I'm going to have leftovers, I usually catch the pasta at the very beginning of al dente, so it doesn't get overcooked when reheating.