Pasta -- How much is enough? (serving)

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Now that I think of it, pasta is so cheap and so easy to cook I can't imagine why anybody would save uneaten cooked pasta for future use. What? Somebody more frugal than me? I had thought that impossible!
 
Now that I think of it, pasta is so cheap and so easy to cook I can't imagine why anybody would save uneaten cooked pasta for future use. What? Somebody more frugal than me? I had thought that impossible!

Because it reheats in the microwave quickly and doesn't require the time it takes to cook dried pasta nor clean the pot. Has nothing to do with being frugal.
 
Because it reheats in the microwave quickly and doesn't require the time it takes to cook dried pasta nor clean the pot. Has nothing to do with being frugal.
For me it does. Why would I throw away perfectly good food? And use the energy and water it takes to cook more instead of simply using what I have? I try not to waste food and other resources.
 
For me it does. Why would I throw away perfectly good food? And use the energy and water it takes to cook more instead of simply using what I have? I try not to waste food and other resources.

I guess in that sense it is frugal, but that isn't my consideration for doing it. The pasta and "sauce" (if it already isn't mixed together) make a quick breakfast/lunch when in a hurry.
 
We never eat reheated pasta here, based on the premise that pasta in Italy is NOT always a main course, we reckon that the right amount of pasta is 60 - 75 grams per portion. Otherwise, how the dickens are you going to get through the rest of the meal! Here, it's a first course, with dishes to follow. In Piedmont where I live, for example, for a dinner party with friends, we're expected to dish up to 8 or 9 different dishes. These days I go for healthy, and I plan my menus so that my guests go home satisfied, but not 'pogged' as we say in English. So none of the dishes are too big. Here we have pasta as a main every so often, and that's it.

di reston


Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
 
We never eat reheated pasta here, based on the premise that pasta in Italy is NOT always a main course, we reckon that the right amount of pasta is 60 - 75 grams per portion. Otherwise, how the dickens are you going to get through the rest of the meal! Here, it's a first course, with dishes to follow. In Piedmont where I live, for example, for a dinner party with friends, we're expected to dish up to 8 or 9 different dishes. These days I go for healthy, and I plan my menus so that my guests go home satisfied, but not 'pogged' as we say in English. So none of the dishes are too big. Here we have pasta as a main every so often, and that's it.

di reston


Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde

If Italians are like Cubans, where there are several generations living in the same home, then I can imagine that mother or grandmother are stay at homes and have the time for preparing all the meals. We don't have that luxury and the pasta dish is the main course. We depend on leftovers as I mentioned above.
 
I try to cook only what I can eat. I had like 2 T. of pasta+sauce left last night. I'd rather cook too little and have an accidental diet moment. I don't like having the same thing again in a few days. Different priorities for different people. Nothing wrong with that.
 
We never eat reheated pasta here, based on the premise that pasta in Italy is NOT always a main course, we reckon that the right amount of pasta is 60 - 75 grams per portion. Otherwise, how the dickens are you going to get through the rest of the meal! Here, it's a first course, with dishes to follow. In Piedmont where I live, for example, for a dinner party with friends, we're expected to dish up to 8 or 9 different dishes. These days I go for healthy, and I plan my menus so that my guests go home satisfied, but not 'pogged' as we say in English. So none of the dishes are too big. Here we have pasta as a main every so often, and that's it.

This is about pasta as a main dish on a regular night, not a dinner party.
 
To be perfectly honest, I've NEVER measured pasta, rice, potatoes.....never. Not per serving, never less, always more. I raised 3 boys and something happened at age 13, something like an endless stomach with no weight gain. Now I make 1-2 lbs of pasta every time. I freeze the extra. Extra only happens when we have had our fill, when there is a quart or more in the refrigerator, and then, whatever is left after that is frozen to be pulled out when an endless stomach requires it. I can't keep enough in the house. Even now my grown son is 30 and he can out eat my husband and myself. He eats it a lot and very much of it. He eats it with butter and parmesan or with meat sauce, or with anything that has a sauce.

I'm going to have to learn to cook by portions when DH and I eat alone, if that day ever comes. I can't see that day.
 
As in 2 tablespoons?....
I'm sorry, but this just made me chuckle.... I would have just dished that extra few grams of pasta and eaten it.
That's why I measured it!!! I'm on a DIET!!! Greg is too fat!!!

Every little speck of food I don't eat helps. Every little sip of wine I don't sip helps. It may not seem like much but over time I am eating and drinking less, consuming fewer calories, and even if I don't exercise I will eventually come to a new equilibrium weight lower than I am now.

And I am going to exercise.... Tomorrow!:mad:
 
Hey Beef, you da man!!! [emoji2]

You got pretty good numbers! (Like same as mine!) The carbs are spot on by my reckoning. While I often eat maybe 1/2 cup of veggies, sometimes I do a cup. How could a cup of green peas or spinach hurt you?

Just noticed this. As SLoB noted, peas and corn are made up primarily of carbs. Most vegetables botanically are fruits or flowers, while peas and corn are seeds. You may want to keep that in mind if you're limiting your carb intake.
 
I hear ya, bliss. When our son was at home, and especially when he played sports, we would call him "Stomach with Legs". A culinary tornado sucking up everything in its path...


For me it does. Why would I throw away perfectly good food? And use the energy and water it takes to cook more instead of simply using what I have? I try not to waste food and other resources.
If you guys haven't looked at this website yet, you need to skim through Save The Food. It has hints for being food efficient along with some stats that will open up your eyes. One stat they showed a while back was that the average family throws out $26 of food a week. :ohmy: If I kept track, I'd be surprised if we tossed should-have-been-eaten food $100 a year. Sometimes something gets lost in the fridge, but not often.
 
If you guys haven't looked at this website yet, you need to skim through Save The Food. It has hints for being food efficient along with some stats that will open up your eyes. One stat they showed a while back was that the average family throws out $26 of food a week. :ohmy: If I kept track, I'd be surprised if we tossed should-have-been-eaten food $100 a year. Sometimes something gets lost in the fridge, but not often.

i haven't seen that site, but I've read about this before. I think it was also mentioned in the Master Food Volunteer class I took last fall. I don't eat traditional breakfast foods, so I often eat dinner leftovers for breakfast and/or lunch. DH often ends up working through lunch, so he sometimes has some sort of leftovers when he comes home around 3-3:30 p.m.

It does happen, but I try really hard not to waste or throw away food. Everyone who has grown, harvested and processed (meaning butchering, cleaning, trimming, canning, etc.) has put time, effort and energy into what I buy, cook and serve and I try to honor that.
 

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