Unless you’re incredibly good at estimating how much dough to cook, you’ll probably end up with a decent amount of leftovers. At the end of the meal, you can put the leftover spaghetti in a container and put it in the refrigerator as usual. Or, if you want this pasta to last more than a few days, you can put it in the freezer for six whole months. Considering how long cooked pasta lasts in the freezer and how much time it can save you in meal prep, planning to freeze it in advance is a smart move for any home chef.

Fettuccine Alfredo (with a thick sauce) to pasta salad, from minestrone to ground beef casserole, ways to cook with noodles. Then it makes sense to cook and freeze your pasta in large quantities, especially if you’re the kind of chef who cooks with it regularly. Imagine how much time you would save if you didn’t have to wait for the water to boil and then wait again for the pasta to cook. When freezing already cooked pasta, simply throw the noodles in the refrigerator the night before to thaw or microwave them while you prepare the other ingredients for the dish. In just one evening of prep, you can freeze enough cooked pasta to last up to six months, making future meals quick and easy.

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Freezing pasta not only saves time, but also makes your noodles last longer

After boiling and draining your pasta of choice, make sure it cools completely. This will be easy if you use part of the pasta in a dish immediately and save most of it for the freezer. Alternatively, let the cooked noodles dry and cool for 30 minutes to 1 hour and add a little olive oil to prevent them from sticking together. There are two methods for freezing pasta once it has cooled. The first method is to portion out the portions into sealable plastic freezer bags and the second method is to freeze your noodles on a baking sheet in the freezer for an hour before transferring the pasta to those same sealable plastic bags.

Some types of pasta are better than others for freezing, but in reality, even raw pasta can be frozen for up to six months. Small sustainable pasta shapes like ditalini, farfalle and rigatoni (the best shape of pasta, period) holds up well to freezing and thawing. Even pasta like spaghetti or angel hair pasta can be frozen, although they may be a little more difficult to defrost. Ultimately, planning to freeze your pasta can not only help you save time in the meal prep process, but also give you the convenience of ready-made pasta on hand for the next few months. Because who doesn’t love a meal that’s both convenient and delicious?

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