As my fellow WFDers will know, my PIC made a fabulous bolognese @Amandarama recently posted. We couldn’t finish it all, bc it was very rich. This was on Friday.
I like to finish my pasta in the sauce, so a few strands of fettuccine are leftover as well.
I wouldn’t hesitate to reheat the meat sauce, but I’m a bit nervous about pasta being in the fridge that long, as that can lead to food poisoning.
I hate hate hate throwing out food — especially when it’s extra-super-duper-delish, so I thought I could just fish out the few pasta strands, heat up that lovely sauce, and just make new fettuccine.
Seems to me that pasta is just flour and water, nothing that seems likely to poison you. Honestly, I would be more worried about the tomatoes but it is only 5 days, if it doesn’t smell “off” I would not give it a second thought.
I would be more concerned about the meat sauce after so many days (much more likely for bacteria growth) - there are enough bacteria even in a fridge which are sometimes even relative heat-resistant (and don’t produce any off-smells) in high-protein and moisture environment. After more than 3-4 days I would toss it
I always am skeptical about weighing in on food safety questions . . . it’s a complicated area, lots of myths, lots of fears . . . if you’re anxious about it, throw it out and forgive yourself for wasting good food.
I’d probably still eat it in my house - knowing how I handled it before I put it in the fridge. But 6-7 days later is pushing my boundary . . .YMMV
That said - left over pasta and rice is definitely a potential source of food poisoning all by itself.
Uncooked rice and pasta can contain spores of the bacterium, Bacillus cereus , which is common and widespread in our environments. Notably, B. cereus can survive even after the food has been properly cooked. If the rice or pasta is left standing at room temperature, like in a pot on the stove, B. cereus spores can quickly multiply and produce a significant amount of toxin. Once refrigerated, the bacteria may go dormant but begin to multiply again when the leftovers are removed and reheated. B. cereus is one of the most common causes of food poisoning in the United States.
(just the first google result - if you have preferred sources for food safety you should find the same info).
I just apply the sniff test. If it smells ok, I just heat the f*** out of it and I haven’t had any problems to date with food poisoning with stuff out of my own fridge.
What I would do and what I would advise others are two different things for two reasons. I’m far more willing to take risks I would not suggest others take, because I don’t know how robust other people’s immune systems are but I know my system and I’m really loathe to toss food unless it has seriously turned. Second, I’m a Master Food Preserver, and the training I undertook compels me to be very conservative WRT ‘eat or toss’ situations. Hence, had I read this thread when it was timely, I would have advised you to pitch it. But I would have eaten it.
If our physical constitution had been ever so slightly better on the night in question, we may well have. But it also would’ve involved fishing out cooked pasta out of a practically solid meat sauce, and we didn’t feel like the hassle, either.
