Stanley Tucci’s 5-Ingredient Pasta Is So ‘Incredibly Delicious’ He Ate It for Breakfast

One of the best feelings as a home cook is making something so delicious that you think about your next serving before you’ve even finished. But why wait until lunch or dinner for leftovers? Why not enjoy them for breakfast?

After all, we have breakfast for dinner, so dinner for breakfast seems more than acceptable. Apparently, Stanley Tucci agrees.

In a recent Instagram video, Tucci shared that he was eating “leftovers for breakfast.” But this wasn’t a leftover frittata or peanut butter sandwich from a late-night snack—this was a bowl of pasta. Because, of course, "the Tucc," who once told Allrecipes he eats pasta practically every day, eats pasta for breakfast.

Stanley Tucci's Leftover Pasta Breakfast

“This is a pasta bake that I made last night for the kids—it's sort of a mac-and-cheese thing with besciamella and some Parmigiano,” he says in the video. “Then I took their leftover peas and put them in it, and then I just fried an egg and added it with some Parmigiano.”

This isn’t the first time the actor has confessed his love for a morning pasta casserole. In 2023, he shared a similar recipe with bowtie pasta, peas, pancetta, béchamel, butter, and Parmigiano. He joked that he was going to eat it at 10 a.m. We didn’t judge him then, and we're certainly not judging now.

What started as a simple pasta dish with Parm and béchamel—because Tucci says he can’t add more cheese without his kids (Matteo, 9, and Emilia, 6) saying, “What is that cheese? We don’t know that cheese!”—turned into an equally easy breakfast, thanks to adding fried egg and peas. Adding an egg makes anything a breakfast dish, obviously. 

“It’s incredibly delicious,” Tucci says in the video.

The best part of the dish isn’t the fried egg—it's the “crispy bits,” Tucci says, holding one up to the camera. He's talking about the crispy pasta and cheese sauce that likely formed when Tucci reheated the dish—probably in the oven or fried in a pan. 

Following Tucci’s advice to “try it” won't be difficult. While he doesn’t provide exact amounts (per usual), you’ll only need pasta, Parmigiano cheese, a prepared béchamel sauce (made with butter, milk, flour, and nutmeg), peas, and an egg.

To follow Tucci’s method, bake the pasta, cheese, and sauce together, then add the fried egg and peas. Alternatively, you can bake everything together or mix it all in a pan—you just won’t get the same crispy pieces Tucci loves so much. 

Do you have to serve the dish for breakfast? Of course not. Eggs in pasta are great for dinner, too—hello, carbonara. But to truly channel your inner Stan, we recommend adding this to your morning rotation.