12 Easy Leftover Spaghetti Noodle Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How do you upgrade leftover pasta? ›

Add a little olive oil, cheese, and sauce, then bake it again. As long as the pasta isn't dried out or soggy, it can be even tastier the second time around. Ricotta and mozzarella can bring leftover pasta back to life.

To use it in your next meal make a pasta frittata! Mix the pasta with eggs and any extra add-ins you like and then cook it until it is set. Try this Leek and Spaghetti Frittata or these Mini Pasta Frittatas. Depending on the season, turn your leftover pasta into a salad or put it into a soup.

Although not ideal, cooked plain pasta and cooked pasta mixed with sauce may be stored in the freezer in Ziploc bags or freezer-safe container. Pasta with sauce should be reheated in the microwave and plain pasta tossed with extra-virgin olive oil should be reheated in a skillet with a little bit of water.

How to Store Cooked Pasta in the Refrigerator. Allow cooked pasta to cool slightly. It can then be stored in airtight containers (from $5, The Container Store) in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days. Again, store pasta and sauce separately, if possible.

Stir-Fried Noodles

Treat cooked noodles like leftover rice and stir-fry them quickly in a hot pan with chopped veggies and leftover cooked meat. Hit with soy sauce to finish. Long noodles are the classic choice here, but short pasta shapes like orzo would work well too.

Spread your leftovers out evenly on a baking tray and bake at 350 for about 15 to 20 minutes, flipping once about halfway through. This will give you evenly heated pasta and some nice crispy bites of toasted deliciousness. To take this up a notch, add a little cheese on top. Yum!

The starch in your pasta water, as luck would have it, is an emulsifying agent and also a thickener. So if you save some of your pasta water and then slowly mix a ladlefull of it into sauce, you're binding together the liquids and oils, creating something creamy and thick that won't ever separate into a puddly mess.

When you order a plate of pasta in the motherland, don't be surprised if they bring you an individual portion. Italians consider pasta tasty when just cooked, so there's no doggy bag or leftovers here. If you're still hungry after your tortellini, feel free to order a second course (secondo)—usually meat or fish.

Keep some pasta water back to add to your pasta dish

As most chefs and home cooks know, when you drain your pasta, it's a good idea to keep back a cup of the cooking water to add to the sauce. Not only will this thicken the sauce, but it will also help it to stick to the pasta.

How do you make spaghetti taste like a restaurant? ›

SIMMER YOUR SAUCE AND NOODLES IN A PAN

A pan is the best method to combine noodles and sauce. Period. Not a giant pot, and certainly not the bowl you'll be serving in. Heating the pasta and sauce together in a skillet helps infuse the pasta with the flavor of the sauce, melding them together into a flavorful whole.

Add a little milk to tomato sauce for a sweeter taste to offset the acidity of the tomatoes. This is a well-kept secret amongst Italian grandmothers. In northern Italy, Bolognese sauce is never made without milk! It can be added at the beginning or end of cooking.

The easiest way to enjoy leftover pasta is to toss it into cold dishes. Strand pasta, such as spaghetti or fettuccine, make great cold sesame noodles. Just puree some peanut butter, soy sauce, a nob of ginger, maybe a little garlic with some neutral flavored oil, such as organic canola, and toss with your noodles.

The best way to reheat noodles that haven't been tossed with sauce is to place them in a metal strainer and dip them into a pot of boiling water until they're warmed through, about 30 seconds. This will not only keep them from drying out—the quick hit of intense heat will prevent them from getting mushy, too.

You can! Just make sure to cool the spaghetti completely before freezing, transfer properly in an airtight container or freezer bag, and label it with the date. Can you freeze cooked pasta with sauce? You can, but if possible, it is best to freeze the sauce and pasta separately for best texture.