Can you freeze leftover spaghetti?

The world is full of unanswered questions.  Why?  Why me?  Why do cats do that?  Will it burn?

The kitchen, microcosm of the world, is also full of unanswered questions, such as "can I freeze this?"

Not nearly as deep, but when you're worn out, staring at the kitchen and thinking "I really don't want to cook tonight," you're not after deep, you're after fast and easy.

I had this giant bag of frozen spaghetti and sauce from a week or two ago that I'd tossed in the freezer when it was apparent that I'd made way too much (it was a crock-pot recipe) and we weren't going to eat it before it spoiled.

I wasn't sure the spaghetti would hold up, but since there are lots of frozen noodle dishes in the instant-dinner aisle of the grocery store, I figured we'd give it a try.  What could we lose, right?

I had put the freezer bag in the fridge that morning.  Around 5:30, I turned the block of frozen leftovers into my pan. 

Needless to say, that would have taken a l...o...n...g... time to thaw.  So I pulled it out of the pan and put it in the microwave to defrost (we used the meat defrost setting).  About 9 minutes later, I put it back in the pan, brought everything to a simmer for a few minutes and served it with a salad.

It actually held up pretty well!  Of course, we were hungry, and the pasta had lost any claim to al dente but the sauce was good and the noodles were softer than usual, but not mushy.  We had used the multi-grain spaghetti, and I suspect that helped it hold up.

So, can you freeze leftover spaghetti?  Yes.

Freezer Tips

Have you heard about umami?  Tastyness - borrowed from a japanese word - it's the "other" flavor.  Not salty, sweet or sour, it's the savory flavor of soy sauce, sauted mushrooms, the browned bits on the bottom of the roasting pan and...tomato paste.  Which brings me to a question.  Why do they still sell tomato paste in those cans?  Rarely do you actually need a whole can, right?  We were making a chicken pot-pie recipe and it called for a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste. 

Yes, you can buy tomato paste in a tube and squeeze it out as you go (a fantastic idea!) but I was out.  A while back I'd had the same problem and after using a tad of paste put the leftover tomato paste in a ziploc in the freezer.  I didn't have a great plan, I just hated to throw out a bunch of tomato paste.

Well, it turns out this was a good idea.  The paste freezes well and I was able to break off a couple of pieces and just drop them into the pan.  They defrosted in seconds and it was easy to stir them up.

But the most important part?  Putting the label on the ziploc!  Otherwise, I'd never have identified that little frozen slab in the freezer.

Here's to instant umami!