My Italian Grandparents' Brilliant Recipe for Using Leftover Pasta

Okay, so I need to establish this one thing first: I'm here to talk about Maccheroni pizza, but maccheroni pizza is not actually pizza.

It's more like a frittata — basic components being egg, cheese, meat, and breadcrumbs with lots of flexibility on the details. What I know as maccheroni pizza is also sometimes referred to as "pasta frittata" or "frittata di maccheroni;" these recipes often instruct one to cook the mixture in a pan and flip it like an omelet. However, the version I grew up eating was always cooked in the oven instead of on the stove. Whether that was simply the route my great-grandmother preferred (and subsequently taught all of my relatives) or it is a method left over from the old-school style of cooking everything in a hearth or pizza oven, it's the way I like it best and the way I've written my own recipe.

Whichever way you cook it, maccheroni pizza hails from Southern Italy and is most commonly found in the region of Campania and the city of Naples. Maccheroni pizza is endlessly riffable because it's made to use up what you have on hand; it's essentially a fridge clean-out recipe. A nubbin of salami, some stale bread, and a few cheese rinds kicking around the fridge? Maccheroni pizza can turn those "scraps" into a satisfying lunch or hearty snack.

The History of Maccheroni Pizza

Like much of the cooking historically rooted in Southern Italy, maccheroni pizza exemplifies the tenants of cucina povera, or "peasant cooking." The central theme of this style of cuisine is seasonal, resourceful cooking based on what is available with a focus on minimizing food waste.

Originally, maccheroni pizza was invented as a way to repurpose leftover boiled pasta from dinner into something hearty for the next day. Combine the cooked noodles with breadcrumbs made from the stale bread and the end pieces of meat and cheese that aren't enough for any other recipe — plus a few eggs — and you have a whole new meal with nothing gone to waste. Today, instead of a creative way to use up leftover pasta, many people choose to boil extra pasta at dinner specifically to have an excess for maccheroni pizza the next day. I grew up eating versions mostly featuring chopped ham or sausage (sometimes crumbled and sauteed but sometimes slices of the links that had been simmering in the Sunday sauce all day long), but there are plenty of other delicious meats you can use to spruce up a maccheroni pizza.

You won't generally find maccheroni pizza in restaurants; occasionally, you'll find it in corner slice shops in Naples, studded with ingredients like chopped salami, leftover pepperoni, and lots of cheese. You will, however, find it in packed lunches all over Italy and in Italian-American households here in the states. It's a ubiquitous snack for road trips or picnics because it's typically served cold or at room temperature. This also makes it great for a child's lunchbox or a quick desk lunch. To me, the best way to eat it is wrapped in a paper towel while standing up… or possibly sitting on the counter in my grandparents' kitchen.

The Recipe for Maccheroni Pizza

The recipe below exists more as a guideline or ratio map, versus a rigid set of instructions. The dish's spirit is based in using whatever you happen to have around.

Cheese

As far as cheese goes, melty types like fontina, Havarti, provolone, Gouda, and even Cheddar are best. (This is true especially when paired with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan or Pecorino for flavor.) Cheeses to avoid are soft, runny types like Brie or overly "stinky" varieties like blue cheese. Low-moisture mozzarella, i.e. the kind that comes shredded in the bag, is absolutely fantastic here — but beware, fresh mozzarella cheese will ruin your maccheroni pizza. Fresh mozzarella contains a ton of water and tends to leech that water out when cooked, totally waterlogging your egg mixture and ultimately making for a soupy mess.

Meat

In terms of meats, you can't go wrong with most Italian cured meats; items like hunks of salami, torn slices of prosciutto, rendered pancetta, and cubes of mortadella are all welcome additions. Cooked sausage is excellent here, too — just avoid anything too heavily spiced like chorizo or merguez. In my experience, hot or sweet Italian sausages are the best variety for this application. You may also want to avoid the intense flavors of heavily smoked meats. While this recipe aims to use up leftovers, tougher or more fibrous meats like steak or pork chops do not perform all that well here, nor does cooked poultry. Try to stick to things you would typically put on a pizza or in an Italian hoagie. With these tips in mind, definitely experiment with different meat and cheese combinations; it's fun to mix and match to find your signature version.

Pasta

The key suggestion I have to offer in terms of the "leftover" pasta you use for constructing your maccheroni pizza is this: Always opt for short, tube-shaped pastas. Anything from ditali and macaroni to penne and rigatoni will work great.

How To Make Maccheroni Pizza

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 8 ounces dry short, tubular pasta (such as penne or rigatoni)
• 1 cup milk
• 10 large eggs
• 1 pinch crushed red pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups mixed cheeses (shredded, grated, or in small cubes), divided
• 1 (heaping) cup meat, cut into small cubes or crumbled
• ½ cup seasoned breadcrumbs

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Boil pasta about half as long as the package recommends, drain, and toss with olive oil in a glass baking dish.

Whisk milk, eggs, red pepper, and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Switch to a rubber spatula or wooden spoon and incorporate about ¾ of your cheese, the meat, and the breadcrumbs.

Pour egg mixture over the pasta in the baking dish and top with remaining cheese.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, covering with foil if the top starts to get too brown. Maccheroni pizza is done when a skewer or butter knife inserted into the middle comes out dry.

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