# Making patties from oddball ingredients

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-patties-from-oddball-ingredients/562892>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 4, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-patties-from-oddball-ingredients/562892 "2010-12-04T02:13:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-patties-from-oddball-ingredients/562892/1 "2010-12-04T02:13:07Z")

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I have some leftover spaghetti + meat sauce (already combined) and started thinking: could I make some sort of patty out of it? If so … how?

I make salmon patties often, using mashed potato as a binder and pressing bread crumbs and/or panko into the surface. What would work in this application? I was looking at some homemade veggie burger recipes for inspiration. Whaddya think, CafeDopers, what to mix the sauced pasta with: mashed beans? mashed potatoes? some sort of egg binder?

Anyone out there tried this already?

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**Author:** ![Implicit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Implicit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Implicit)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-patties-from-oddball-ingredients/562892/2 "2010-12-04T02:34:21Z")

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I’d suggest adding grated parmesan and a beaten egg (or two). It will have a fairly loose consistency, but should firm up when you cook it. If you want a crispy crust, coat the patty in bread crumbs before frying it up in olive oil.

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**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-patties-from-oddball-ingredients/562892/3 "2010-12-04T14:34:52Z")

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Not sure about a pattie but what implicit describes is a fairly common way to use leftover pasta - dump in in a hot skillet coated with olive oil or butter, pour over some beaten eggs, sprinkle with Parmesan and pop in a hot over for 5-10 min and you have a spaghetti frittata

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**Author:** ![Shark\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Shark\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark_Sandwich)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-patties-from-oddball-ingredients/562892/4 "2010-12-04T17:55:14Z")

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Whenever we have left over mashed potatoes, I’ll usually carmelize some onion and fold them into the potatoes, add an egg, some bread crumbs and make patties out of 'em. Then I’ll pan fry them and eat them with some crumbled bleu cheese on top.

Only thing I’ve ever done with leftover spaghetti is a frittata like **zoid** said or, because of iCarly, spaghetti tacos for my two kids.