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Top tips

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Our tips for Pasta

  • Rice and pasta left over

    Submitted by Cecile, kent

    You cooked too much pasta or rice? Put it in a saucepan, add tomato puree (or tinned) then add mushroom and other vegetables and warm it up. Transfer to an oven dish, add a generous layer of gruyere and grill until brown. The kids will love it.

  • Pasta portions

    Submitted by Jenny, Stanstead

    If you don't have any kitchen scales, measure shaped pasta in handfuls. Two handfuls per adult is just right.

  • Leftover soup

    Submitted by Denise , Colchester

    If you have a food processor or blitzer, any leftover casserole or cooked veg can be made into a soup for later with store cupboard ingredients. Cooked vegetables work best with a stock cube and perhaps a small amount of spaghetti or vermicelli broken up small which can be cooked until soft in the stock before adding the blitzed veg. Casseroles are good with concentrated tomato puree. Curry works well, it has a strong flavour and you really only need to add water.

  • Weigh your pasta

    Submitted by Sarah, Dorset

    Use your scales to weigh dry pasta to get the right amount for your family. My husband and I each eat 3oz and the children used to have an oz each but my son is getting bigger so he now has 2. By weighing the past I know I always cook the right amount. Works for any shape including spaghetti too. And you can do the same with rice!

  • Save energy cooking pasta

    Submitted by Gina Jolliffe, Brixham

    I was told how to do this by an Italian, but was sceptical. However, it seems to work. Bring water to the boil. Add the pasta, bring back to the boil. Take off the heat, close firmly with a lid (always a good tip anyway for reducing cooking cost) and leave closed for the time it would normally take for the pasta to cook on the heat. I could see no difference in cooked quality. This method provides a good al dente.

  • Lion pasta sauce or lion soup

    Submitted by Lell Picken, Consett co.Durham

    I make pasta sauces and soups from the vegatables that are "lion" about in the fridge! Peppers, celery, carrots, tomatoes that are too soft to go in a salad. It's never the same twice. I also do the same thing with fruit and make crumbles.

  • Get measuring...

    Spaghetti measurers are a really handy tool to have in the kitchen, use it when you're cooking and it will help you avoid cooking too much.

  • Pasta Soup

    Add leftover pasta to soups to make them more substantial.

  • Pudding from pasta

    Submitted by Beryl Bradford, Milton Keynes

    Cooked too much pasta? Why not use left over pasta to make a delious pud? Place cooked pasta in a greased oven dish, beat 2 eggs well, add double cream and strawberry jam and pour evenly onto the pasta. Place in the oven on 180deg for 40 minutes then under a hot grill for a few minutes until golden brown. Serve with ice cream of whipped cream. Yummy!

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