Three tasty ways to keep pasta costs down and get more for your dough
WE are spending more on our pasta, with costs increasing by 11 percent in a year.
To keep costs down, steer clear of expensive sauces and ingredients.
Here are tasty ways to make spaghetti stretch further.
SORT YOUR SHAPES: Some of the fancy pasta brands cost over £2.50 for a 500g pack.
But you can save money by buying a basic range: Tesco’s Hearty Food Co-penne costs 41p for 500g.
Other inexpensive pasta shapes include spaghetti, fusilli and linguine.
READ MORE MONEY SAVING TIPS
To keep an eye on costs, keep an eye on your portion size.
According to the portion calculator on lovefoodhatewaste.com, a family of two adults and two children under ten needs 240 grams of dried pasta, making a 500 gram bag easily enough for two meals.
If you do end up cooking too much, let it cool, drizzle with a little oil and stir to separate it, then freeze it for another day.
MEAT FREE MAGIC: Many of us love a spaghetti bolognese or a carbonara, but both will put a strain on your budget because they contain expensive meat and lots of ingredients.
Simple vegetarian dishes, such as pasta with homemade tomato sauce, are just as tasty and keep prices low.
All you need are canned tomatoes, an onion, garlic or garlic powder and a good dash of oil.
Fry the onion and garlic and then add the tomatoes until they break down and the sauce thickens.
Stir into your pasta and sprinkle with cheese.
For another dish: add the broccoli to the pasta pan for the last five minutes of cooking, drain and gently mash the broccoli with the butter and cheese.
EAT LIKE AN ITALIAN: In Italy they have incredibly extensive pasta sauces, but they also like to keep it simple.
You can make an easy weeknight meal by gently cooking the crushed garlic cloves in olive oil and then adding them to the cooked pasta, sprinkled with chili flakes and parsley.
Another dish – cacio e pepe – uses just butter, pepper and parmesan cheese with spaghetti.
- All prices on the page are correct at the time of going to press. Offers and offers subject to availability.
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