How to Reheat Pasta, the Giada De Laurentiis Way

We’ve all been there: You make a big batch of spaghetti or cacio e pepe or lasagna, toss several days’ worth of leftovers in the fridge, and then when it’s time to reheat it, you nuke it in the microwave for ease — only to be left with a bowl full of bland, sometimes crunchy pasta. Well, as it turns out, we’ve been reheating pasta all wrong. And while day two (and especially day three) pasta will never taste like as good as day one, Giada De Laurentiis swears by a pan-fry method of reheating pasta that tastes almost as good as (and sometimes better than!) the original.

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“Your leftover pasta deserves better than the microwave treatment!” De Laurentiis writes. “This method of reheating pasta on day 2 or 3 turns it into something new, and sometimes, even more delicious than the first time you ate it.”

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De Laurentiis’ recommends pan frying your pasta leftovers in olive oil. And doing so is easy.

To start, heat a skillet with a “generous amount of olive oil” over medium heat, and add the leftover pasta once the oil is hot.

“Wait for this,” urges chef, food stylist, and Chopped champion Lish Steiling. “The oil should ripple and move freely in the pan when swirled around, almost dance. That is when you know it’s hot and that is when you are good to add the pasta.”

Let the pasta cook for a few minutes; and if you need to add more oil because the pasta looks dry, do so. Stir the pasta until the pasta is browned, crisp, and heated through.

That’s it. Really! And if you want to add a bit of a kick to your reheated leftovers, Steiling recommends adding a dash of red pepper flakes or a small dollop of calabrian chili paste.

“Don’t forget the parm,” Steiling adds. “Never forget the parm!”

Get the full pasta-reheat tutorial on Giadzy.

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