I generally find the numbers printed on pasta boxes for cooking time far too high: I'll set the timer for a minute below their low-end "al dente" time, and when I taste one it's already getting too mushy. I decided to run a small experiment to get a better sense of how cooked I like pasta. I decided to use Market Basket Rigatoni. [1] It's a ridged cylinder, and I measured the ridges at 1.74mm: