How long does pasta & pasta sauce last in the fridge? - Spaghetti Works

We have been known for big portions and all you can eat. Sometimes you take some home with you, but then a few days later you see it in the fridge and wonder if it’s still good and if microwaving it is the correct choice. Spaghetti Works is here to help you figure out if your pasta should be reheated. You can freeze pasta and pasta sauces to extend the life of both, we’ll cover that in a separate entry.

3-5 days. We normally recommend eating your leftovers the next day or within 2 days, this is due to the to go containers we use not being airtight. If you have already planned meals and were banking on eating the left overs around the 3-5 day mark, we would encourage to place the pasta in an airtight zip-lock bag and be sure to roll the air out of it as much as possible. If you aren’t sure how long it’s been you can tell if the pasta and sauce combo has turned if you open the package and the odor doesn’t seem quite right. Please, if you see any signs or the appearance of mold, go a head and just throw it away, do not open it or taste it.

Depending on the sauce this answer can very wildly. You will need to take into account the sauce pasta (cream or tomato), how it’s being stored in the fridge, and if it contains any meat, and if so what is the refrigerated life of the meat after cooking. Where some sauces may not show mold at the low end of the answer but the chance it has began or formed and is just not noticeable has increased dramatically so if you are not going to use the sauce within the timeline given we strongly recommending freezing.

5 days to a week if no meat is mixed with the sauce, 3-4 days if meat is mixed with the tomato-based sauce. A tomato-based sauce that does not contain any meat premixed into the sauce will hold for usually around 5 days, this would include our original & spicy marinara. Sauces premixed with meats that are tomato-based we would recommend eating with 3 days to 4 days. This would include our chili, spicy Italian, meat sauce, or red clam sauce.

7 days is the recommended time in the fridge for cream-based sauces. The reason being is usually the cream-based sauces have ingredients that are better in the cold than a tomato, such as heavy cream. This would include our alfredo, Cajun alfredo, pesto cream, white clam, and beer cheese sauces.

Sometimes the pasta is already mixed into the sauce and sometimes you have gotten a great container of beer cheese sauce to-go for you to make pasta in a few days. Either way we always recommend transferring the sauce into an airtight container. All the containers we serve to-go sauces in will last in the fridge for the recommended time above. If you would like to extend the life an extra day or possibly 2, we recommend putting the sauce in an airtight zip-lock bag. We would not recommend extending past two days of the above recommendation unless you are freezing it.