frittata di pasta / pasta frittata

with pink tagliatelle

My first vacation away from my parents, at age 16, was quite adventurous, food-wise. I spent 10 days or so in the Calabrian city of Rossano, and during that time, I tasted for the first time a whole array of foods that I liked a lot, like caciocavallo silano and swordfish. One day, my host prepared a frittata with leftover spaghetti. It sounds pretty basic, but I had never had anything like that before. My mother always weighed pasta before cooking it, so we never had leftover spaghetti or rigatoni. If we had leftover tagliatelle al ragù, she would warm them up in an oiled frying pan: the result is quite good, just not a frittata.

Unlike my mother, I often turn leftover pasta into a frittata. This is not so much a recipe as a recycling approach. The frittata is a bit different every time, depending on the base pasta and possible additions, usually cheese. I adjust the number of eggs and pan size to the amount of pasta at hand and choose among the cheeses I have available the one that I think pairs better with the pasta.

The spaghetti frittata I tasted many years ago was made with pasta that had been set aside for the purpose right after draining (scondita, i.e., not yet dressed). In my examples here, the leftover pasta had some dressing (condita):

• pasta made with roasted red beets turns a lovely pink color: while farfalle are pretty, they take time to make, so more often I cut the dough into tagliatelle and dress them with burro e parmigiano
• pasta made with borage, on the other hand, turns into a speckled green; if I have some of my homemade ricotta, I use that to dress these tagliatelle, otherwise, good old burro e parmigiano is always a winner
• pasta al pesto (recently featured) appears regularly in my kitchen and leftovers make a tasty frittata

with borage tagliatelle

The cheese on the pink tagliatelle frittata was my homemade robiola. The cheese on the borage tagliatelle was my homemade French Neufchâtel and over the pesto pasta frittata I sprinkled a bit of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

with fusilli al pesto

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for frittata di pasta

Ingredients:

• leftover pasta
• olive oil
• eggs of good quality (I used pastured eggs); if you have leftover whites, this is a good place to use one or two
• 1 tablespoon of water for each two eggs
• sea salt, to taste
• cheese of choice, thinly sliced or crumbled or grated, depending on consistency

Spray a skillet with olive oil and warm up. Empty leftover pasta container into the pan. Warm up the pasta and lightly sauté it for a couple of minutes, stirring every now and then.

While the pasta is warming up, break the eggs in a bowl and whisk them lightly with a fork until just blended. Add the water, then a few pinches of salt and whisk briefly. If you are using grated cheese, you can add it to the eggs, if you wish; I like to distribute it on the surface, so I hold on to it until later. Turn on the broiler. (If your oven allows it, choose the "low" setting.)

Pour the eggs slowly into the skillet. With the fork, gently arrange the pasta so it is evenly distributed. Cook over low heat until the eggs are set. After the edge is set, run a spatula under it and shake the frittata gently to ensure the bottom does not stick to the pan.

Evenly distribute chosen cheese on the surface. Place the skillet in the oven, leaving the door ajar, for a couple of minutes. The frittata will puff up a bit. Take the skillet out of the oven (don't forget that the handle is hot) and let rest of a couple of minutes, then slide the frittata onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges and serve.

Final note. Rossano is famous for the Codex Purpureus, an amazing VI century illuminated manuscript of the New Testament written on purple-dyed parchment.

This is my contribution to edition #254 of Presto Pasta Nights. The event was created by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast and is hosted this week by Simona of briciole (that would be me).

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

frittata di pasta

or launch the frittata di pasta audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

frittata, pasta, egg

Comments

[Caffettiera]

I learned about frittata di pasta, or actually, frittata di maccheroni as they called it, at my first boyfriend's family. I was probably about the same age when you discovered it. His mum came from Naples and pasta (never maccheroni, despite the name, just penne or spaghetti) was basic food for them. I loved it so much I never stopped preparing it. It is the perfect portable lunch when cold.

[Ruth]

Fabulous post. I can't imagine what I would do with leftovers if it wasn't for frittatas! Thanks for hosting this week's Presto Pasta Night roundup, once again.

[Paz]

Wow! I've never heard of a pasta fritta. Sounds and looks delicious! I think Inspector Montalbano would approve, too. ;-)

[Frank]

Indeed a great way to recycle pasta. As we know, reheating it doesn't really work... My only problem is, we never have any pasta leftover!

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Caffettiera. Indeed, frittata di pasta is a great portable lunch.

Hi Ruth. You are welcome: it is such a pleasure!

Ciao Paz. I just finished reading another Montalbano novel: there was some nice food, as usual. Montalbano has a good appetite ;)

Ciao Frank. I know it can be tricky: if you cook more to get leftovers, you may end up eating more.

[Claudia]

Thanks for the good recipe and reminder, fritatta di pasta is the perfect way to use those bits of left-over pasta, and I often forget.

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Claudia. I totally recommend it. And in fact, you can a bit of this pasta and a bit of that pasta, you could combine them into one frittata.