A shocking 4.5 million tonnes of edible food is thrown away each year by UK households, according to climate action organisation WRAP and 25 percent of this wasted food is due to cooking too much.
When it comes to cooking pasta, especially spaghetti, you might find that this is often something you prepare an excess of, as it can be difficult to work out exactly how much you need per person.
But before you put any leftovers in the bin, it turns out there's a quick and easy way to get another tasty meal out of extra spaghetti, according to a top chef.
Roberta d'Elia, the head pasta chef at Pasta Evangelists, has shared a game-changing way to use up your leftovers to avoid food waste this Food Waste Action Week.
Roberta claims she and many other Italians will "baulk" at the idea of food waste and will find savvy ways to turn leftovers into a new dish.
With spaghetti, this quickly becomes a frittata, known as frittata di spaghetti - a Neapolitan take on Britain's iconic bubble and squeak.
Sometimes this meal is also called a pastiera di spaghetti, in reference to a similar-looking pastiera tart from Naples.
Roberta explained: "Sometimes I also cook too much spaghetti - just because I'm a chef doesn't mean I do everything perfectly.
"When there's too much it can be hard to know what to do but we have a special recipe from South Italy called frittata di spaghetti which uses up any leftovers."
So how do you go about making this?
"First of all I open the fridge and I'll see whatever else is leftover, perhaps some ham, some cheese like pecorino, some bacon... I mix it all together with some eggs and the spaghetti and then just fry it all in a pan," the chef says.
"This will be a beautiful second dish, it's still pasta, but it's different.
"Don't throw away your leftover spaghetti, you can create something really special the day after."
A full recipe for the frittata can be found in the Pasta Evangelists cookbook, Perfect Pasta at Home, which was written by Roberta and her colleague Finn Lagun.
The book explains that you can experiment with flavours for the dish, using anything you have to hand - and you don't just have to use spaghetti.
Roberta adds: "There is no reason this frittata must be assembled with spaghetti, any leftover pasta shape will work just as well."
Do you have a food story to share? We want to hear all about it. Email courtney.pochin@mirror.co.uk
