Q: What do I do with leftover pasta?
Like many of you, pasta is a weekly staple in our house. And, like many of you, we find ourselves with stray bits of pasta lurking around our fridge. However, fear not - that leftover pasta need not be destined for the compost bowl or garbage bin. Below, we’ve outlined a few ways to use up leftover noodles.
Pasta Frittata: The OG himself - Mark Bittman - details how to make this simple dish, which is perfect for a snack, or any meal of the day. Feel free to omit the meat, or tuck in wilting spinach, arugula, chives or parsley. We make ours in a muffin tins, so these mini frittatas can be eaten on the go.
Freeze it: Yes, pasta can be frozen! Though you could boil extra pasta to freeze intentionally, we usually wind up freezing leftover pasta that wasn’t eaten. If that’s your situation as well, start at step 3 of the above linked instructions.
Make pasta salad: like the pasta frittata, this works best with plain pasta or simply buttered pasta. Toss leftover noodles with mayo, a little soy sauce, shredded carrots, and chopped scallions for a classic mac salad. Or, mix your noodles with some Italian dressing, halved cherry tomatoes, basil or parsley, and grated parmesan for a refreshing summer dish. Or, just open a jar of sauce or pesto, and tuck on in.
Make less: Easier said then done, we know. But, we find buying and preparing the same brand /cut of pasta each week (stock up when it’s on sale!) means we can just make however much pasta need without the risk of half boxes of unused spaghetti smirking at us whenever we open the cupboard.