An Ice Cube Tray Is The Answer To Your Excess Pasta Sauce Problem

Pasta sauce is a powerhouse ingredient that easily turns plain, bland noodles into remarkably delicious dishes like roasted tomato and chipotle cream pasta and almond mint pesto pasta. Unless you are eating pasta every night, however, a big batch of sauce can suddenly transform from a handy kitchen ally to a major problem. Pasta sauce can only last up to seven days at most in the fridge once opened — often not long enough for you to finish it all. Worry not, though, because we have a solution. To quickly and conveniently preserve your sauce for meals to come, freeze it in an ice cube tray.

Freezing pasta sauce is an obvious solution to extending its longevity, but the real magic that comes into play here is doing so in an ice tray. By using this trick, you create simple pre-portioned servings of pasta sauce that you can grab one by one without defrosting an entire batch. All you need to do is spoon the sauce into an ice cube tray — one designed for larger cubes is ideal, here, as it is more likely to produce cubes in a size that provides a full serving of sauce — and freeze. Once solid, remove the cubes and place them in an airtight container to keep the sauce fresh. Using this method, your pasta sauce will last for up to three months before declining in quality.

When it comes time to enjoy a portion of your pasta sauce, the safest method to thaw it out is to transfer it to the fridge and wait for a few hours or overnight. In dire situations where you need some sauce immediately, you can also use the defrost function on your microwave in short intervals. When heating your sauce to serve, it is best to do so slowly on low heat in order to prevent the sauce from breaking and separating.

You may be skeptical about using this approach for some pasta sauces, especially those that use cream such as Alfredo sauce or vodka sauce. The good news is that you can absolutely freeze these types of pasta sauces without fear of ruining them. While they will separate during the freezing process, they can be easily restored to their former glory with thorough stirring as you reheat them.