Pasta is usually made from wheat. Eat Wasted would like to add yesterday’s bread to the conversation.

Videos by Sporked

The Copenhagen-founded food company has brought its rescued pasta to the U.S., and it’s made by turning surplus artisanal European bread into pasta. The result is a pantry staple with a slightly unusual origin story―before it landed in your bowl, part of it was headed for the trash.

From Bread To Pasta

Eat Wasted started with a fairly simple question: what if perfectly good bread didn’t have to become food waste?

It’s a bigger problem than it sounds. Bread is among the most wasted foods globally, which stings when you consider how much flour, water, energy, and time goes into a decent loaf. Bakeries end up with surplus, it gets tossed, and the cycle repeats.

The company’s fix is to intercept that surplus before it hits the bin. It rescues excess artisanal bread from European bakeries and uses it to make pasta in Europe, using traditional pasta-making methods. According to Eat Wasted, each serving saves approximately one slice of bread from being wasted.

And no, this isn’t pasta that tastes like someone dropped a loaf of sourdough into the pot.

The company says the bread-based recipe gives the pasta a naturally rough surface, which helps sauce cling to the noodles instead of sliding off into a sad puddle at the bottom of the bowl. It’s designed to cook and eat like premium pasta, just with an ingredient that took a less traditional route to get there.

It’s More Than Just The Pasta

The rescued bread is the headline ingredient, but Eat Wasted is also trying to build food-waste reduction into the rest of the product.

The pasta comes in recyclable paper packaging, and the company donates one portion of pasta for every 10 sold to help feed people in need.

But the main selling point is still supposed to be the pasta itself. Eat Wasted’s founders say they don’t want consumers to feel like they’re choosing between a product that’s good for the planet and one that’s actually good to eat.

That’s the appeal of the whole concept. You buy pasta, you eat pasta, and a slice of bread somewhere avoids the trash.

Where To Find It

Eat Wasted pasta is now available through Misfits Market, directly from the brand, and at Whole Foods Market.

So if you’ve ever looked at a loaf of bread and thought, “Sure, but what if this were spaghetti?” someone has finally done the experiment. And if you haven’t thought that before, well, you have now.