Do you have leftover cooked spaghetti from last night’s dinner in your fridge? Then you can make this quick and easy cold spaghetti salad, carbonara style with bacon and boiled eggs!
Oh my good lord, this cold spaghetti salad just puts a big smile on my face.
What a cute little recipe we have here!
I know that I am repeating myself again but here is what happened: here I have two handfuls of leftover cooked spaghetti in the fridge from last night’s pasta puttanesca dinner.
Leftover Cooked Pasta
What dish could I possibly prepare with it?
Next to the leftover cooked spaghetti sits one hard-boiled egg and a handful of leftover diced salted bacon bits.
Do you have any idea what I could make out of those things?
Well too bad.
If only the egg was uncooked, maybe I would have been able to make a quick spaghetti carbonara with that leftover cooked pasta!
Cold Spaghetti Salad Recipe
But hey, wait a minute.
Why not throw that egg in a blender and make an egg crumble.
Add that to the fried bacon and cold leftover cooked pasta. And let’s see what happens in the end. Ouch, it is a little too dry for my taste! So in comes a splash of whole milk to make my cold spaghetti salad extra moist.
Then taste that cold spaghetti salad again, add a little pinch of pepper and salt.
Whoooawww, this actually works!! Et voilà, that is how my quick and easy recipe for cold spaghetti salad carbonara style was born, with cooked leftover spaghetti.
Hands down a recipe for the best cold spaghetti salad ever.
More Recipes
Oh here is another recipe that you can prepare with leftover cooked spaghetti: my Chinese vegetable stir fried noodles!
Or how about a similar recipe of Chinese soy sauce noodles!
And just in case you need more inspiration: you can find 4 more leftover cooked pasta recipes below!
Here is a good tip if you have cooked leftover pasta in your fridge and it sticks together like glue. Just let the cooked spaghetti soak in a bowl in a little tap water. The pasta will fall apart in just a couple of seconds.
Then just strain the pasta, and your pasta is ready to be used!
Store Overnight
Here is a very important if you store a little leftover cooked pasta in the fridge overnight: you better cover with cling film to keep it from drying out. Or the pasta strands will dry out, turn a dark yellow and become totally inedible.
Enjoy!
Easy Carbonara Style Cold Spaghetti Salad Recipe
- 6 oz cooked spaghetti (180 g), cold
- 2,5 oz salted bacon (70 g), diced
- 1 cold hard-boiled egg peeled
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
- pepper
- salt
- Dice the salted bacon into small strips and add them to a large saucepan.
- Place the pan over medium heat and gently cook the diced bacon for 3 to 4 minutes without adding any butter or oil. The fat the bacon releases is enough to make the rest of this recipe creamy! In the meantime add the hard-boiled egg to a blender. Pulse a few times until you get a fine egg crumble. Take the saucepan with the cooked bacon off the heat. Add the crumbled egg from the blender.
- Stir it well. Season with a pinch of pepper and salt. Add the cooked leftover spaghetti and the milk.
- Stir again until the eggs have totally absorbed the milk. Don't put the pasta back over the heat, it should be lukewarm. Check the seasoning of the cold spaghetti salad and add some pepper and salt to taste if necessary. Add the freshly chopped parsley.
- Stir one last time. Transfer the cold spaghetti salad to a deep plate and serve lukewarm or cold.
Easy Spaghetti Frittata
And here is a savory spaghetti frittata.
Another meal that I was able to make with a handful of leftover cooked spaghetti from yesterday’s spaghetti meatball dinner! I can never throw stuff away so quite often I end up with a handful of cold cooked spaghetti in my fridge.
I already made a cold spaghetti salad carbonara style above. So I had to dig a little deeper this time to find me another great recipe for leftover cooked spaghetti that doesn’t make the cold pasta look like a real leftover.
Breakfast
This spaghetti frittata makes a perfect light and crunchy lunch!
I even served this frittata for breakfast one day.
Lovely!
Enjoy!
Easy Spaghetti Frittata Recipe
- 9 oz cooked spaghetti (250)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp onion chopped
- garlic powder
- a handful fresh parsley chopped
- 3 medium eggs
- pepper
- salt
- Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on the bottom of a medium non-stick pan and arrange the cold leftover cooked spaghetti nicely on top of it.
- Break the eggs in a large cup and season them with a pinch of garlic powder, some freshly ground pepper and salt. Add the chopped onion and the freshly chopped parsley.
- Beat the eggs well again. Place the pan with the cooked spaghetti over medium heat and let the spaghetti gently bake for 4 minutes. Then pour in the seasoned beaten eggs. Try to pour the eggs evenly over the spaghetti.
- Season with an extra pinch of pepper and salt and then put a lid on the pan. Turn the heat low and let the eggs set for about 7 to 8 minutes.
- Then remove the lid and flip the frittata over very carefully. Do this with a spatula or turn the pan over onto a plate and slide the frittata back into the hot pan. Let the frittata cook for another 3 to 4 minutes on its uncooked side.
- Once the spaghetti frittata is cooked, transfer it to a chopping board and cut it into wedges. Serve hot.
Easy Leftover Spaghetti Soup
How about a delicious spaghetti soup.
Yet another great recipe that sprouts from my chronic inability to throw leftover food in the garbage bin.
This is a zero waste kitchen right here!
So I put a lonely handful of remaining leftover cooked spaghetti in the fridge overnight and assured myself that somehow I would find a way to incorporate it in tomorrow’s lunch.
I already made that crunchy spaghetti frittata before.
The hubs is not such a big fan of cold pasta salads so that narrows down the options.
Coconut Milk
My initial idea while frying the shallots and garlic was to make a quick spaghetti and vegetable stir fry but it turned out a little different in the end.
The curry powder and coconut milk give this soup a slight Indian almost Asian touch, very nice in combination with the sweeter taste of the green peas. See why leftovers are so great! There’s always something to do with leftover cooked pasta.
Add a little this and a little that.
There you go, the best of lunches!
Enjoy!
Easy Leftover Spaghetti Soup Recipe
- 3,5 oz cooked spaghetti (100 g)
- ¾ cups chicken or vegetable stock (180 ml)
- 5,5 oz frozen green peas (155 g)
- 1 medium garlic clove
- ½ small red onion
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tsp curry powder
- 1 tsp curcuma powder
- ½ tsp garam masala
- 1 cup coconut milk (240 ml)
- pepper
- salt
- Peel and finely chop the garlic clove and the red onion. Melt the knob of unsalted butter in a high non-stick pan over medium heat and add the chopped garlic and the red onion.
- Gently cook the garlic and onion over medium heat for about 4 minutes until the onion starts to soften. Stir a few times. Once boiling, add the frozen green peas. Also pour in the coconut milk and the warm vegetable or chicken stock. Bring all the ingredients to a good boil.
- Stir in the ground curcuma powder and the curry powder. Season the soup with a good dash of pepper and salt.
- Turn the heat low and simmer the soup for another 3 minutes. Check the seasoning and add more pepper or salt if necessary. Divide the leftover cooked spaghetti over large bowls. Pour in the coconut curry and green pea soup.
- Serve the soup piping hot.
Easy Leftover Cold Spaghetti Salad
What a lovely spaghetti salad we have here!
And totally different than my cold spaghetti salad above.
This time the extra handful of leftover cooked spaghetti that was left after our Italian pasta ragu dinner yesterday was a calculated move.
After preparing that spaghetti soup and a crunchy spaghetti frittata some time ago I felt like there was much more to do with a portion of leftover cooked pasta. So same story all over again: open your fridge, freezer and pantry and see what interesting combinations you can make.
Fresh Herbs
You can add whatever edible fresh herbs you can lay your hands on.
For this leftover cooked spaghetti salad I used a mixture of fresh mint, tarragon, chives, lovage and parsley from my little outdoor herb garden.
Sure you don’t need to use that much of them.
I highly recommend that you add the fresh mint though because it goes extremely well with the sweetness of the cooked green peas.
Peas and mint, that is such a lovely classic flavor match!
Enjoy!
Easy Leftover Cold Spaghetti Salad Recipe
- 10,5 oz cooked spaghetti (350 g)
- 3,5 oz frozen green peas (100 g)
- 10 black olives sliced
- ½ small red onion
- 1 small garlic clove
- a handful fresh herbs
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- pepper
- salt
- Peel the red onion and the garlic clove. Slice both up finely and add them to a small saucepan together with a splash of olive oil.
- Place the pan over medium heat and cook the onion and garlic for 2 minutes. Then add the frozen green peas and the sliced black olives. Season with a pinch of pepper and salt.
- Stir and let the green peas cook and thaw for about 5 minutes. Stir regularly. Then take the pan off the heat again. Let the green peas and cooked red onion cool at room temperature. The onion should still be a little crunchy. Wash the fresh herbs (I used mint, tarragon, chives, lovage and parsley) and roughly chop them up. Add them to the cooled cooked peas and stir.
- Check the seasoning and add more pepper and salt to taste if necessary. Add the leftover cooked pasta to the cooled green peas in the saucepan.
- Stir all the ingredients well. Add extra olive oil if the salad is too dry. Divide the cold spaghetti salad over plates and serve cold.
Easy Creamy Anchovy & Cheese Penne Pasta
It is not always leftover cooked spaghetti that ends up in my fridge.
Other types of leftover cold pasta are also a great ingredient to build a quick recipe around!
So some time ago I made a delicious ratatouille style vegetable pasta sauce. Which I served with al dente cooked penne pasta. Here is some of that leftover cooked penne pasta that I turned into a creamy pasta dish with anchovy and cheese and sauce.
What an easy leftover pasta recipe!
Enjoy!
Easy Creamy Anchovy & Cheese Penne Pasta Recipe
- 12,5 oz cooked penne pasta (350 g)
- 2 canned anchovy fillets in oil
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp parmesan cheese grated
- ¼ cup cream (60 ml)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small garlic clove
- pepper
- salt
- Peel the garlic clove and mash the garlic up finely under the blade of you knife.
In a medium non-stick pan add the unsalted butter and the olive oil. Place the pan over medium heat.
Once the butter has fully melted, add the mashed garlic. Gently fry the garlic for 3 minutes. Then add the anchovy fillets.
- Stir and let the anchovy fillets melt in the butter.
- Then pour in the cream. Bring it to a simmer. Season with a pinch of pepper.
- Once the cream is warm, add the grated parmesan cheese.
- Let the cheese melt into the cream sauce. Check the seasoning of the sauce and add extra pepper or salt to taste if necessary.
- Add the leftover cold cooked penne pasta to the pan.
- Stir well to combine. Take the pan off the heat and divide the penne pasta over deep plates and serve.
