This recipe for Bread and Butter noodles is one of those recipes, that I’m almost embarrassed to call an actual recipe. It’s more of a “We just paid a crap ton in taxes, so what can I find in the freezer” kind of dish.
My kids love it, though. Like seriously love it so much that they both squeal when they see me making it. They’ve been known to ask for it in restaurants, and I have to tell them that this isn’t like a real dish or anything. It’s more just me standing in the kitchen dumping stuff together in a pot.
But I get their excitement. I’m totally with them on it, because I was once that little girl watching her mom make this and knowing it was going to be the best dinner ever.
It’s the ultimate comfort food, so we try to make it sparingly. That way it keeps the kids thinking it’s a special treat too! Strategy, my friends.
I’ve seen other people make fried noodles with bread crumbs, but I use actual bread slices. It makes such a difference!
Those little pieces of fried, butter bread are everything. Everything.
Bread and Butter Noodles
This is the ultimate comfort food and is even cheaper using frozen bread crusts!
- 16 oz. dry noodles
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3-5 slices of bread
- Boil a large pot of water and cook your pasta according to the directions for al dente. While it’s cooking, rip your bread into small pieces. If the bread is still frozen, you can lightly toast it first.
- Drain in colander. In same pot, heat butter over medium heat until melted. Add bread pieces to melted butter and stir to coat. Add pasta to pan and continue stirring until everything is evenly coated, about 3-5 minutes.
- Optional: I sometimes add parmesan, but it really isn’t necessary! You could also add garlic to butter and stir together while melting it.
I’m a cheapskate, so I save all of my bread heels (crusts, end pieces of the loaf… what do you call them??). I just keep a bread bag in the freezer, and throw the heels in every time we get a new loaf of bread. That way, I can pull them out quickly for easy recipes like this!
And my kids never worried about cutting the crust off on sandwiches, but you better believe that if they had, I would be saving those crusts as well! Waste not, friends!
Shell
Friday 3rd of June 2022
I grew up with depression era parents and my mom made this on no-meat Fridays for my Catholic dad. I only found your recipe because I was eating toast an had a whiff of a memory of it so I googled “butter bread pasta”. I might need to make this!