These leftover spaghetti recipes will breathe new life into your day-old pasta!
Who doesn’t love spaghetti? But let’s be honest, no matter how good it is, leftovers are unavoidable.
It really loses its luster the next day, too. But it’s such a waste of good food if you throw it away!
That’s why I found 16 recipes you can make with leftover spaghetti. These transformations are plain brilliant, and they’re so easy to pull off, to boot.
Whether it’s spaghetti from your kid’s birthday party or a casual dinner with the family, you can easily make it the next day’s winner.
1. Leftover Spaghetti Bake
As scrumptious as spaghetti is, chilling it in the fridge overnight takes its toll.
More often than not, refrigerated spaghetti is too dry and dehydrated.
Here’s a quick fix: pop it in the oven!
Leftover spaghetti bake is one of the simplest recipes I’ve encountered. It’s quick, easy, and absolutely amazing.
All you’ll need are eggs, butter, a bit of herbs and seasonings, and the pièce de résistance: cheese. Bake until golden, and dinner will be ready.
2. Easy Spaghetti Pie
Another fool-proof way to serve leftover spaghetti is to bake it into a pie. Yep, you read that right – spaghetti pie.
For this recipe, the more leftover ingredients, the better. Do you have ham and bacon?
Throw it in for added texture. You can add mushrooms, too, for an earthy flavor.
Top it off with parmesan cheese and serve in equal slices. Or, ya know, you can make yours bigger.
3. Leftover Spaghetti Pasta Frittata
Want a unique way to serve yesterday’s pasta? How about a frittata?
This dish is crispy on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside. And it’s loaded with bacon, peppers, and cheese.
Throw them all in an iron skillet; mix in the egg and cheese, and you’ll have a hearty breakfast in a flash!
4. Leftover Pasta Fritters
Anything is better when fried. I’m pretty sure everyone agrees.
If you’re not a fan of adding more stuff to leftover spaghetti, then this one’s for you. It’s a quick and fool-proof recipe that yields irresistible results.
All you’ll need is some oil and a frying pan! Drop molds of pasta into the pan and boom: spaghetti fritters.
Crisp, tender, and so flavorful, you’ll want to snack on these morning, noon, and night.
5. Spaghetti Pizza
In the mood for another Italian feast after last night’s spaghetti dinner? Convert your pasta into a pizza!
Italian traditionalists might frown upon it, but who cares, it’s delicious.
The idea of using leftover pasta as a crispy noodle crust is genius.
Top the crust with your favorite pizza toppings such as mushrooms, pepperoni, pizza sauce, and lots of mozzarella cheese, and you’ll have a certified hit.
Who says you need to choose between pizza and pasta? This dish combines the two into one majestic mash-up.
6. Spaghetti Lo Mein
Who would’ve thought that you can take an Italian ingredient and make a Chinese dish out of it?
Here’s what you’ll need: soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, garlic powder, and ginger powder.
Whisk that all together, and you’ll have a traditional lo mein sauce.
Throw in some veggies for a nice crunch, add in your leftover pasta, and tada! A magical dish is born.
7. Muffin Tin Spaghetti
Have you ever heard of impostor desserts? Here’s another chance for you to trick your kids into eating veggies without them knowing it!
Add grated carrots, chopped spinach, or peas to leftover spaghetti and place it in muffin tins. The rest is up to the oven.
You can even enlist the kids for a fun activity! This will make them more excited about the dish. Heck, they’ll probably ask for seconds.
8. Spaghetti Sandwich
This next dish is a full meal packed into one epic sandwich. Made of garlic toast, meat sauce, pasta, and cheese, it’s what I call a heavenly combination.
You really can’t ask for more. But you will ask for seconds!
This one’s a personal favorite because I love anything that oozes with cheese.
As you sink your teeth into the sandwich, the sauce and cheese ooze out from the toast. Sure, it’s messy, but it’s fun to lick it off your fingers!
9. Leftover Spaghetti Boats
This one’s another sandwich recipe, but instead of using garlic toast, you use hollowed-out French bread.
Trust me, it’ll surely be a family favorite.
Aside from being delicious, this is also super fun to make!
There’s something satisfying about scooping out French bread and filling the space with spaghetti and cheese.
What’s even more fun is watching the cheese melt in the oven!
Serve it the next day for movie night, and no one will even miss the popcorn.
10. Spaghetti Balls
There’s a wide array of fun ways to repurpose leftover spaghetti, but I’ll bet it never occurred to you to turn them into balls.
Instead of making meatballs, why not make spaghetti balls?
This playful and backward approach to spaghetti and meatballs is just the thing you need if you want to reinvent last night’s dinner.
If you’re a fan of Stranger Things, think of it as a dish from the Upside Down. It’s scary alright – scary delicious.
11. Leftover Spaghetti and Meatball Panini
Here’s the perfect fix for last night’s spaghetti with meatballs.
It’s a lot like a spaghetti sandwich, but this time, you’ll take out the panini press from the cupboard.
You can play around with what cheese you want. Gruyere, cheddar, mozzarella – take your pick. You can even mix and match as you please!
Serve it as a snack or pack it for your kids’ lunch. Trust me, they’ll come home with big smiles on their faces.
12. Spaghetti Funnel Cakes
I don’t think I need to say it, but this one only works with buttered noodles.
No garlic, no pepper, no cheese.
Add some ricotta, flour, eggs, and sugar, and these little bites are such a fun way to use up leftover noodles!
13. Spaghetti Cheese Casserole
Want to turn leftover spaghetti into a stunning side dish? This recipe is all you’ll need.
I’m a fan of classic mac and cheese, but when I learned about this recipe, I fell in love.
I’ve made it countless times. Sometimes, I’ll even make it from scratch instead of with leftover pasta.
You won’t have to make any white sauce for this one. Just add all the cheeses you want to your pasta – mozzarella, cheddar, gruyere, parmesan – and bake.
It pairs well with anything! Eat it with fried chicken, pork chops, burgers, hot dogs – the sky’s the limit.
14. Leftover Spaghetti Lasagna
This one’s another personal favorite. I just absolutely adore lasagna! Knowing that I can make another version of it using leftover spaghetti pasta makes me happy.
Layers of leftover spaghetti, velvety white sauce, sweet and savory meat sauce, and cheese – OMG. I’m already drooling.
It’s so good, you’ll want to make it again and again. And again! I even make it a point sometimes to make more spaghetti just so I can whip this dish up.
15. Spaghetti Salad
Did you ever think you could make a salad with leftover spaghetti? Neither did I! But here’s one recipe your health-buff friends or family will 100% enjoy.
This one isn’t meant to be a main dish, so you can serve it as a side dish to go with grilled barbecue or steak.
There’s no cooking involved here, just a lot of tossing around, so it’s pretty easy.
Combine any leftover spaghetti with cherry tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, olives, some shredded chicken – the works.
Don’t forget to coat it with a creamy Italian or Greek dressing!
16. Chocolate Spaghetti
Last, but certainly not least, say hello to chocolate spaghetti.
Yes, it sounds crazy… crazy good, that is!
Chocolate on pasta? Who would have thought? As strange as it sounds, it’s absolute perfection on a plate.
Whether you’re already a talented baker or a newbie in the kitchen, this crossover is simply one for the books.
The sauce by itself is already mind-blowing. Anything with cream cheese is just heaven for me.
Add in some sugar, butter, and of course, chocolate, and you’ll have an irresistible treat.
16 Leftover Spaghetti Recipes You’ll Devour
These leftover spaghetti recipes will breathe new life into your day-old pasta! From a decadent spaghetti pie to pizza and sandwiches, leftovers have never tasted so good!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Select your favorite recipe.
- Organize all the required ingredients.
- Prep a spaghetti dinner in 30 minutes or less!
I would love to make the dish that is pictured twice, actually three times if you count the one on the photo montage above “did you like this recipe, on this page. It is the first picture and the last picture shown. The round yellow dish with a triangle piece cut out…you don’t even have it named. None of the recipes listed look anything like that picture. It was that picture that made me go to your page.
Hi Kern! That picture is a leftover spaghetti frittata! It’s actually listed at #3, but that recipe had cherry tomatoes on top. I’ve swapped it out for something more simple.
Hope you like it!