Making pasta is something you prefer to do in a big pan. Just like the Italian moms in movies and on TV, who always seem to cook enough to feed the whole neighborhood.
It’s great to be able to serve a second (and third) time and to save a few portions for later. Storing pasta is great in the fridge or freezer.
This way, you always have a delicious pasta dish at hand, and all you have to do is heat it up!
Storing pasta, the best way to do it?
Some dishes only seem to get better if you don’t eat them right away, but can get them out at a later time. Pasta is ideally suited for this.
Pastas and pasta sauces retain their texture if you reheat them and, indeed, it gives the pasta extra time to fully absorb the sauce. So it only makes it fuller in taste.
Storing pasta for lunch the next day or freezing it for a quick dinner is always a good idea. As long as you take into account the conditions under which you can store food.
Storing cooked pasta and fresh pasta
Storing dried pasta (and that includes dried fresh pasta) is never a problem. Put it away at home – preferably in a dry, dark and cool place in the house – and you can store the pasta until eternity; so to speak of course.
If you want to store fresh pasta, then a little more urgency is called for. Fresh pasta can be kept in the refrigerator for two days in its original packaging. Fresh pasta can be kept in the freezer for about a month, provided you freeze it immediately and preferably in the original packaging.
Storing pasta in the fridge (for how long?)
When we talk about storing cooked pasta, we are not talking about just the pasta, but the whole dish. Never just throw away what you have left over, that’s really a waste.
As we already said: it will only be tastier if you eat the rest of the pasta for lunch the next day or keep it in the freezer for later.
Storing pasta in the fridge can easily last two days, if you refrigerate it in time. In the freezer, your pasta dish will keep for at least three months.
Of course, for all the periods mentioned, the logical caveat applies: if the pasta no longer looks good or starts to smell unpleasant, don’t take any more risks and throw it away. And if there is fish in the pasta, preferably do not keep it in the refrigerator for more than a day.
How long to store pasta salad?
Pasta can also be used to make delicious salads (hot or cold). Storing a pasta salad is different from, for example, storing pasta carbonara.
After all, the vegetables do not become more tasty if they are left to soak in the dressing for a long time. But if the dressing is used sparingly, the pasta salad will still be a very pleasant and healthy snack a day after it has been prepared from the fridge!