Everyone knows or remembers pulling left over dry, stuck together, pasta noodles and separated sauce in Tupperware containers from the fridge. Heck I used to mix them together in the morning for lunch, heat it up on my work truck engine back in the day!

Recently we started making our pasta with a sauce inspired by Cook’s Illustrated “The Fastest Fresh Tomato Sauce” (June/July 2020), however we use capers instead of anchovies, about three large handfuls of spinach, white balsamic added with the spinach, and parmesan/Romano shredded on top- and there’s always some left over. We often get three nice sized meals out of this- one dinner and two breakfasts.

This is an excellent way to use up some of the year’s cherry tomato harvest!

  1. Start with a heated wide deep nonstick pan, add three tablespoons olive oil, and 1 chopped shallot, allow to sweat some.
  2. Peel and slice about 1-2 inches of hard pepperoni, slice into 1/8-inch pieces and cut in half, then add them to the pan for a minute.
  3. Next add a good handful of cherry tomatoes or chopped large tomatoes (I prefer cherry tomatoes personally) cook for another minute.
  4. Add the left-over pasta, then spinach, douse it with balsamic vinegar and cover, cook low-medium for about 2-3 minutes. Remove the cover and stir till the spinach just wilts down, remove from the heat and plate (bowls).
  5. Split an Amoroso roll, or cut two slices of Italian bread, place on the grill or large pan sprinkled with olive oil and heat on medium high till they brown, cut in half.
  6. Grate some parmesan and Roman cheese on top of both bowls, add the bread to each plate and you’re done.