Giada De Laurentiis' Hot Take On Leftover Pasta Has Us Questioning Everything

Pasta is a comfort food for many, including renowned Italian chef Giada De Laurentiis. What's not to like? There are numerous fun pasta shapes and flavorful sauces to choose from, and no shortage of ways to combine them to create a delicious, easy, and satisfying meal. Say you've whipped up a fresh serving of pasta, got carried away, and made too much for one serving; well, we've got some good news for you. Coming from the mouth of De Laurentiis herself, eating leftover pasta can actually be better for you than freshly cooked pasta. In fact, there is actually an interesting science that underlies why leftover pasta can be beneficial for your health.

Once the pasta has cooked and starts to cool down, the carbohydrates turn into resistant starch, a type of fiber. Resistant starches don't get digested by the body when passing through the digestive tract, but instead can be broken down and consumed as fuel for your gut bacteria, which can have a positive impact on your digestive health. They also don't cause a spike in your blood sugar levels and enhance glucose sensitivity, which is crucial to maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. The same applies to other starches, such as rice, which has been shown to have similar effects on blood sugar and digestion. Since leftover chilled pasta is here to be your gut's new bestie, whip up your absolute best pasta recipe. If anyone gives you flak for being "too lazy to cook," they probably need to be let in on this starchy secret; as De Laurentiis says on TikTok, "leftover pasta for the win!"

If you savor eating leftover, cold pasta, let it cool for at least 24 hours to ensure the resistant starches have formed through a process called "retrogradation," wherein the original starches lose their structure during cooking and reform into new resistant starches. If the idea of eating cold pasta to reap the health benefits of leftovers doesn't seem like a worthy compromise, don't fret. Turns out, cooking or reheating the cooled pasta still retains the resistant starches, meaning your creativity can extend beyond cold pasta salads.

How long cooked pasta lasts in the fridge depends on several factors, including the type of pasta, the container it's stored in, and whether it's been combined with the sauce. As long as you don't detect signs of spoilage, you can avoid food waste and instead set about whipping up ingenious recipes with leftovers. One savvy way to use leftover pasta is in a frittata for an Italian-inspired breakfast or brunch. If you have shapes such as penne, fusilli, or farfalle (basically anything you can easily pick with your hands), season to your liking, pop in the air fryer, and turn them into chips instead. For pastas that have already been combined with a sauce, you can line them in muffin tins and transform them into baked, bite-sized snacks, make a hearty pasta casserole dish, or even make De Laurentiis' childhood favorite dish, pizza di spaghetti. Here's your invitation to let your leftovers guide your culinary creativity.