Press down with back of a wooden spoon to create a flat cake. Heat oil and butter in an omelette pan and tip the mixture into the pan. Ensure that the ingredients are well mixed. You only need enough sauce to coat the pasta otherwise it will be too runny when you add the egg. Serves 3-4 Ingredients: 200g cooked spaghetti (or other pasta) pasta sauce 2 eggs, beaten 25g Parmesan or Pecorino cheese, grated salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 tbsp olive oil a small knob of butter Mix cooked pasta with a little of the pasta sauce. For being a thrifty bunch, they have a fabulous way of using up pasta by adding it to frittatas, (including any leftover sauce too). I always wondered what Italians did with leftover pasta and now I know. Photograph: Rachel Kelly Photograph: Rachel Kelly Having said that, when a pasta salad is done well it can be a simple pleasure. Anyone who has ever experienced the kind of food served in a works canteen might have sympathy for my feelings towards pasta salad it is that horrible feeling of familiarity – the one that says 'haven't I seen you somewhere before?' to yesterday's leftover lunch. Pasta salad is one of those dishes that I can be a bit wary of. Similarly a generous handful of cooked pasta can be added to soups, particularly Italian-style vegetable and bean soups. In using up leftover noodles or spaghetti in a stir-fry, they are added at the last minute so that they don't begin to overcook and disintegrate. I particularly like the way that baked pasta forms a chewy crust. My favourite ways of using up leftover pasta are to make a frittata, use them in a south-east Asian-style stir-fry or to bake the pasta (particularly tube-shaped pasta such as penne or rigatoni), where it doesn't matter quite so much if the pasta is slightly over-cooked. Obviously it also reheats in a microwave really well too. Pasta can easily be reheated by pouring a kettle of boiling water over it or dunking it into a saucepan of boiling water for about 30 seconds. I know that some people like to add a teaspoon or two of vegetable oil to coat the strands so that the past doesn't stick as it cools, but I don't usually bother. Once it has cooled and shed excess moisture, I tip it into a Ziploc bag or plastic container and put it in the fridge until needed. When I realise that I have too much pasta, I rinse the leftover pasta under cold water to immediately halt the cooking process and then leave it to drain and to cool. So first of all, there are some strategies for keeping your cooked pasta in tip-top condition. The texture will be slightly different it will very likely have lost some of its bite, but that doesn't mean it isn't perfectly edible and it really would be a shame to waste it. Assuming you have looked after your pasta properly after cooking it, there is nothing wrong with reheating it the next day. Maybe what I regard as a leftover, other people regard as 'the thing that will be reheated tomorrow'.

But how many people really do that? Perhaps it's just a question of the name 'leftover'. The rule of thumb is a portion of roughly 100g of dried pasta per person. Yes, I know that you know that you are probably supposed to weigh out your pasta. How many times have you cooked too much pasta? Be honest now. Leftover pasta is not a mythical beast I know it truly exists. I can't help myself and I have seen those Tupperware containers of mysterious geometric shapes and amorphous gunk nestling at the back of fridges.

My friends forget that I am not just the Dinner Doctor, that I am Rachel the Fridge Forager. There were some people who just wouldn't meet my eyes as they widened theirs in horror at the concept of leftover pasta.

When I told friends that I was putting together a piece on leftover pasta, I was met with blank looks, some incredulity and not a small amount of shiftiness. The leftover that dares not speak its name.

Leftover elbow macaroni recipes