It’s no secret that people eat leftover pasta, but this is a time-honored way to turn it into something else. It’s so good that you might find yourself cooking extra pasta just so you have an excuse to make this. As with any other frittata, you can add what you like here. It might be a bit of pancetta or bacon, but it can also be a bit of cooked vegetable or something as simple as minced scallion or parsley.

　　

Ingredients

makes 4 servings

　　1/4 pound spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine, or other long pasta or about 1/2 pound cooked

　　Salt and black pepper to taste

　　4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter or extra virgin olive oil

　　1/4 cup minced pancetta, bacon, or prosciutto, optional

　　5 eggs

　　1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

　　

Step 1

If you’re using cooked pasta, chop it up. Otherwise, bring a large pot of water to a boil, add salt, and cook the pasta until barely tender, somewhat short of where you would normally cook it. Drain and immediately toss it in a wide bowl with half the butter. Cool it a bit.

　　

Step 2

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Put the remaining butter in a large ovenproof nonstick skillet and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the meat if you’re using it and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is nice and crisp, 3 to 5 minutes.

　　

Step 3

Combine the pasta with the remaining ingredients, along with some salt and pepper (less salt if you used meat). Pour the mixture into the skillet and immediately turn the heat to medium-low. If necessary, use a spoon to even out the top of the frittata. Cook, undisturbed, until the mixture firms up on the bottom, then transfer it to the oven. Bake until the top is just cooked, about 10 minutes. Remove and serve hot in wedges or at room temperature.

　　

Pasta “Frittata,” Sicilian Style

Step 4

It’s amazing how close this is to a Chinese noodle cake: Combine the cooked pasta with salt, pepper, and olive oil—no more. Cook it as you would the panfried noodle cake that forms the base for Shrimp with Crisp-Fried Noodles (page 534) and top it with Fast, Fresh Tomato Sauce (page 606) or any other good tomato sauce. Serve as a first course, side dish, or light main course.

　　The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman. © 2005 by Mark Bittman. Published by Broadway Books. All Rights Reserved.MARK BITTMAN is the author of the blockbuster The Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.