After you’ve eagerly cooked your way through our In Cucina vertical, there’s a good chance you’re going to have some leftovers. And that’s not to mention the wilting vegetables, rock-hard bread, and odd bits of meat you never manage to use in time—even though you could’ve sworn you bought them just two days ago. We’ve got you.
The Italian philosophy of non si butta via niente (nothing gets thrown away) means this country has a treasure trove of transformative recipes so great that we’ve been known to make a little extra pasta or leave a bit of bread out on the counter just to make them. Here are five such Italian recipes to rescue those leftovers languishing in the fridge—and you from another depressingly reheated lunch.
FRITTATA DI PASTA
By Italy Segreta Team
It’s true that some pastas just don’t hit as hard leftover as they do fresh. So we’ve got a solution. This protein-packed frittata gives your pasta a tasty new life, especially if you add a hefty shaving of Parmigianno to the frying pan before the pasta/egg mixture.
Frittata di pasta
PANZANELLA
By Italy Segreta Team
This beloved bread salad is a go-to when we have a loaf that’s been sitting around a little too long. In this case, the harder the better, especially when you soften it with water before tossing with summer’s bright bounty: tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and basil.
Panzanella
LA RIBOLLITA
By John Bersani
While most soups are certified clean-out-the-fridge vehicles, this one, which is another outpost for your stale bread, takes it to the next level. With a recipe that’s practically a choose-your-own adventure of beans, veggies, greens, onions, stock, and bread, the soup is cozy, hearty, and relatively foolproof.
La Ribollita; Photo by Nico Schinco
PASTA, POTATOES, AND PROVOLA
By Deborah D’Addetta
Have some half-used bags of pasta lying around? Enter the Neapolitan’s solution: pasta, potatoes, and provala is a loving hodgepodge of short pasta shapes cooked down with soffrito, passata, potatoes, and provolone until it’s a warm, stringy comfort bomb.
Pasta, Patate, e Provola
NONITTA’S MONDEGHILI
By Carlotta Panza
Meatballs are a leftover’s dream role. Stale bread, the last spoonful of ricotta, that half-onion in the fridge, yesterday’s roasted veg, or bits of ground meat too small for anything else—they all belong here. And prep-wise, you’ve got options: fry them crisp, bake them soft, simmer them in sauce… just don’t stick them on pasta (unless you’re in Abruzzo and they’re pallottine).
If, instead of meat, you find yourself with extra fish, eggplant, potatoes, and/or bread lying around, see Carlotta Panza’s recipes for three other meatball types here.
Mondeghili, meatballs
