If you’ve ever taken a box of pasta out for the evening’s dinner and had left over pasta you will understand my frustration in cooking with pasta. I love pasta, don’t get me wrong. I find that the majority of the time when I cook pasta though I end up with excess pasta that has to be stored and hopefully I’ll remember to use it again for a future pasta dish.
This left over pasta dilemma intrigued me so I grabbed a few packages of pasta out of the pantry to determine what my problem was. I had a wide variety to choose from and wound up with four different brands and varieties of pasta. The first thing I considered about each package was the serving size and servings per container. Only two of the packages had the same volume of pasta, but the serving size for all four packages were the same. I was at least happy that the serving size was consistent on each package, but this did not solve my left over pasta dilemma.
After thinking about the pasta packages and thinking about my family I came to the realization that the reason I always have leftover pasta is because my family size is 4.5 and each package of pasta has somewhere between six and eight servings. I am certain that when my three year old son nears his teenage years he may be able to consume half a package of pasta by himself, but until then I’ll have to rely on storing the pasta until I need it for the next dish.
The good thing about the small amount of pasta remaining after I’ve cooked an entire meal is that it is the perfect serving size for two. My son and I can eat the left over pasta for lunch for a quick, easy, and healthy meal. All I have to do is cook the pasta, add some fresh shredded vegetables, and top it with some Parmesan cheese, or grab a package of homemade spaghetti sauce from our freezer to throw together a quick meal.
i have this issue too, so i got glass jars with the hinged lids.. i break pasta in half to cook it anyway so my 2 year old can eat it easier, so i just break the leftover pasta in half and put it in a jar. Voila! lol… i do have a few jars tho, because i use spaghetti noodles, angel hair noodles, and elbows, as well as extra wide egg noodles..but it always works out for me because they are on the countertop and i can easily look and see what i have!
That’s a really good idea. I counted and I have five different kinds of pasta open since we eat a variety. I notice that the opened boxes get pushed to the back of the pantry and we forget about them sometimes.