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A Piece of Pasta Pie

Nov

Pasta has to be the ultimate convenience food. When I’m tired and haven’t got the energy to spend hours tinkering in the kitchen, I just reach into the store cupboard for a packet of dried pasta and fifteen minutes later, supper’s ready. The kids love it and it goes with just about everything, so its great for using up cooked meats and veggies and odd bits of cheese.

Pasta Portions…

I find getting portion sizes right with pasta can be a bit hit and miss, unless I actually weigh it out which is a bit of a faff. When it’s just me and my husband I use an ordinary mug, and cook about one and a half mugfulls (roughly 200-250g) for us both. For spaghetti, you can’t beat a proper spaghetti measurer – a clever little gizmo which removes all the guesswork. The trick is to remember that dried pasta tends to roughly double in size when cooked. Getting the kids’ portions right is a bit more tricky, but it doesn’t matter if I have been too generous. It will always get eaten up the next day.

Pasta Pie…

Our favourite leftover pasta dish is Pasta Pie. It’s really just an Italian omelette made with pasta, and you will have to trust me on this one – it’s delicious! It works brilliantly with spaghetti and it’s a great way to empty the fridge. Just beat a few eggs in a big bowl and then throw in, cooked pasta, cooked meat like bacon, ham, or sausage, cooked veggies, try peas, roast peppers, courgettes, a bit of garlic, loads of grated cheese and herbs and seasoning. Stir it all about, tip into a large frying pan and cook until it starts to brown underneath. Finish it off under the grill until gorgeously golden.

This is great chopped into wedges with a salad for lunch and the kids love ‘pasta pie’ for supper.

Have you got any clever ways to use up leftover pasta that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them…