I hate waste – particularly of food. Unless it’s gone bad, I find a way to use it or save it (thus my self-proclaimed moniker of Queen of Freeze!) So I often find myself with bits and bobs which need to be eaten.

The bane of my cooking is getting it right with pasta. I often over-estimate how much to cook, then find myself with too much cooked pasta (which can’t be frozen). Finally, I decided to Google ‘leftover pasta’ and found a frittata recipe which sounded promising. Once I had this idea, I looked around for other things to put into it. At that time I had a little pesto, part of a red pepper, a couple of mushrooms, and a few scallions that were on the verge. I mixed it all up with a few eggs and cooked it up in a cast iron skillet.

The base of this frittata is pasta and eggs (you really need at least 4). Go from there, using your imagination and what you have.

LEFTOVER PASTA FRITTATA

• 4 or more eggs
• leftover cooked pasta (I use about 1½ cups of cooked spaghetti)
• peas (I always have frozen peas, so I toss them in)
• olives (I always have Kalamatas)
• scallions, shallots – these don’t need to be pre-cooked, which I like
• some sauce (pesto, bbq, go-chu-jang), if you have it
• cheese (I like to use Feta & Pecorino-Romano)
• whatever else you’d like to throw in
• oil for frying (I use olive oil)

Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Heat oil over medium/high heat in a cast iron skillet (I use a 10″). Pour in the batter and let cook until starting to set and bottom is well browned – about 7 minutes. Here comes the tricky part – you’re going to need to flip the frittata to brown the other side. Loosen the bottom using a metal spatula. Once the bottom is no longer stuck, carefully slide the frittata onto a large plate. (Or, you can place a plate on top of the skillet and, using oven mitts, flip the skillet letting the frittata drop onto the plate.) Cover with another plate and flip. Then, slip the flipped frittata back into the skillet and cook until the bottom is well browned. Let set about 5 minutes before slicing.