Stanley Tucci's Leftover Pasta Creation Can Basically Be Eaten For Any Meal
Only Stanley Tucci could persuade the internet to put the fork down and leave some pasta on our plates to make a delicious dish from the leftovers. The Hollywood actor is no longer just a favorite leading man but has also become an Italian food guru to his faithful 1.3 million TikTok followers since filming his docuseries, "Searching for Italy."
Leftover pasta is never as good as when it was initially made, so instead of just microwaving the tupperware, savvy home cooks have been reinventing refrigerated pasta into brand-new dishes. Cooked noodles in all shapes and sizes can be added to beaten eggs to make cheesy frittatas, crispy on the outside with that signature chewiness of al dente pasta. Leftover pasta can also be treated like leftover rice, stir-fried along with fresh veggies, grated ginger, and soy sauce for a quick and delicious Asian-inspired meal.
And if you have a little more time on your hands, Tucci's latest TikTok dish is blowing people's by elevating pasta leftovers to the next level — at least, if the video's 4.6 million views are any indication.
Turn leftover farfalle into a cheesy casserole
It was10 a.m., and Tucci was already thinking about lunch like a true Italian American. In his recent TikTok, the actor shared how he transforms last night's leftover garlic and oil farfalle (butterfly or bowtie-shaped pasta) into a casserole. After sautéing garlic, onions, peas, and pancetta until the veggies were translucent and the fat had rendered from the pancetta, Tucci whipped up a béchamel sauce, which consists of cooked flour, butter, and milk, whisked until thick and creamy. With all of those elements stirred together, the pasta was ready to be topped with knobs of butter and a flurry of Parmigiano.
@stanley.tucci breakfast, brunch or lunch? Not sure but it was f'ing delicious. #foodtok
Tucci baked his casserole in a small countertop oven until the top was caramelized from the parmesan cheese, with crispy bits of pasta poking through the surface. While Tucci's leftover pasta dish involved just as much, if not more, cooking than the original recipe, the dish looks worth the extra energy. Acknowledging that it was still morning, Tucci looked into the camera and said, "I think I'm going to have it right now," permitting us to enjoy pasta at any time of day.