Anyone ever had a party with a pasta bar?

[britfish]

I would like to figure out how to have a party with a pasta bar. I would like to try to do as much as I can on my own to save $.
I was thinking a couple of kinds of pasta, maybe a red sauce, and an alfredo sauce. Then maybe a few toppings, like meatballs, broccoli, chicken, etc..
I am envisioning the pasta plain so people can create their own combos. What do you think?
Here are my questions...
Do you think I can cook the pasta earlier in the day if its really hot out so I don't have to do it with 25 people in the house? How do I reheat it? Crock? chaffing dish?
How about the alfredo, could I keep it warm in a crock pot?
Do you think a chinette style plate will be strong enough for pasta?

 

[Maddle]

I think this is a great idea, and I can't wait to see what advice people share with you.

My one answer is yes, I think the Chinette plates will be adequate.

 

[carebee21]

I've been to a party where it was done. They had a spaghetti pasta, ziti or rigatoni pasta and then farfalle. For sauces, there was a marinara, alfredo and then a vodka sauce, which I thought was fun having a "specialty sauce."

Then they had sausage, meatballs, and chicken for meat and broccoli, olives, and crushed peppers and cheese as toppings. Then there was breadsticks and salad as a side. And the people who didn't want pasta or were on a diet just had chicken salad, which was a good idea.

They had all of the sauces in seperate crock pots and the noodles were just in seperate bowls, but they had just been prepared.....

 

[minnierocks]

I have not done one but just attended a graduation open house that had a pasta bar...It was a fantastic idea! There were four different sauces-regular red with italian sausage, a spinach alfredo, a sundried tomato that had green/yellow peppers in it and a regular alfredo. There were two kinds of pasta-rotini and penne. Everything was set up in large metal pans with burners underneath (like a caterer would use). There was parmesan cheese to top pasta. There was a large side salad with an oil and vineager dressing and some different types of bread.
The pasta had just a little water in the bottom of the pans and it stayed hot and wasn't mushy. It was covered in foil so that the steam stayed in.
I hope this helps!

 

[Poohforyou]

We've done this a couple of times for church events. We did marinara, pesto and sausage/meatball in red sauce. Add a big salad and crusty bread. We cooked the pasta right before serving, tossed it with a little olive oil and kept it in steam trays.

You could cook it al dente ahead of time and then just drop it in boiling water for a minute to reheat before putting in chaffing dishes. If the sauces are really hot the pasta can be just warm and it'll be fine.

For serving, I just saw a really cute idea in Good Housekeeping to use frisbees as paper plate holders.

 

[MissBritt]

Yes, I have done this a few times. We did 2 pastas and marinara with meatballs and alfredo with chicken. We use chaffing dishes. I always get the large to-go salads from Olive Garden to go with it... each comes with a dozen breadsticks you pop in the oven for about $16.

 

[clh2]

I got some great advice on the disboards 3 years, when DD had her confirmation. We served 25.

Then last year - we did a pasta party for DD's cross country team (almost 50 girls). And...DD wants to host a pasta party again this year (so I must have done a nice job...)

So - I can speak with a certain amount of experience.

As far as the pasta in advance - you can cook it the minimum amount of time the directions recommend. Then drain it, rinse it with cold water. Cool it off, and then toss in a little olive or vegatable oil (to keep it from sticking together) and then put it in a ziplok bag.

Just before you serve the pasta - you can get a pot of boiling water going, and toss in the pasta for a few minutes, and then you'll be ready to drain it and serve it. I did this with 10 pounds of pasta...this works great!!! We have a pasta boiler insert - so we could easily reheat several batches of pasta before the water needed changing.

If you are concerned about the possibility of running out of pasta - have angel hair pasta as a back up. (It cooks much faster than regular spaghetti or linguini.)

I would also recommend a pan or two of ziti or lasagna. (ziti is pretty much the same ingredients, it just isn't as "fussy" of a preparation.) That can be prepared a day in advance, and then cooked prior to serving.

The sauces - I actually made the sauce for DD's cross country tree. I made this several weeks in advance and froze it. Thawed them out overnight in the fridge.

DD likes chicken alfredo - so we had chicken alfredo. I used a pre-made alfredo sauce, from Sam's Club, and then we added grilled chicken.

Try to get a Nesco roaster, or a couple of crock pots to heat up the sauces. This will keep the stove burners "available" for heating up the pasta.

And - don't forget that the grill is a perfect "extra" oven if you are doing garlic bread if your oven is otherwise occupied.

Please let me know if you need any more info - I took really careful notes on all the food we used for the cross country pasta party.

 

[SplashMo]

Did this for 300 people...

Went to Cash and Carry (Local Store that restaurants shop at) for low prices on red sauce, alfredo sauce and meatballs.

Used (are they called roasters) basically larger than a crockpot to serve sauces from. Had one red, one red with meatballs, one white, one white with meatballs. Salad and rolls. actually had enough food for 500-600 and the bill came to $595.00

Would not work with spagheti really well... We used penne pasta which is classier??? at any rate more durable...

Cheaper even is burrito bar...

 

[britfish]

Thank you all for your ideas! I am taking lots of notes so I can try to get this off without a hitch on Sunday!

 

[luckey-lasvegas]

I can tell you that in the resturants that I have worked in the pasta is cooked ahead of time and portioned out into small bags. They just zap it in the microwave for a second to heat it up. As long as the sauce is hot that you are putting on it, the pasta doesn't really need to be super hot. I would think some crockpots for the sauce and some chafing dishes for the pasta with just a little water in the bottom would be fine.

 

[britfish]

We have 22 people coming to the party. How much pasta would you cook? I was thinking 3 boxes of spaghetti and 3 boxes of bowties?
How much sauce would you use? I am probably going to use can/jar sauce and add some fresh vegiges to it. And the alfredo recipe is for 5, should I triple it?
someone is making a crock of Cincinati chili (you eat it on noodles) so I am considering that my 3rd sauce!

 

[LilyWDW]

We have 22 people coming to the party. How much pasta would you cook? I was thinking 3 boxes of spaghetti and 3 boxes of bowties?
How much sauce would you use? I am probably going to use can/jar sauce and add some fresh vegiges to it. And the alfredo recipe is for 5, should I triple it?
someone is making a crock of Cincinati chili (you eat it on noodles) so I am considering that my 3rd sauce!

If someone is bring Cincinnati chili, then I would have more spaghetti. Not sure how well another pasta type would work with that so you want to be sure you have enough to cover that issue. Also, don't forget the beans, onions, and cheese!

What else are you serving? Bread, salad, starter, dessert?

As a main dish, I would suspect 4-6 servings per box. Using 5 as an average, you would need a total of 5 boxes of pasta. However, I personally would go by getting 4 servings out of a box because I would hate to be short. So, you would need 6 boxes then.

 

[britfish]

thanks for your quick reply! I think I am going to do a ceasar salad and some type of bread or bread sticks ( I don't really want to do garlic bread because I don't want to have the oven on and hubby is prone to burning it on the grill)

 

[jennilynn510]

this is such a fabulous idea !!! fabulous just fabulous !!!

 

[britfish]

this is such a fabulous idea !!! fabulous just fabulous !!!

LOL! Thanks but its nerve wracking because I have never done it so I am trying to guage the quantities!

 

[luckey-lasvegas]

The great thing is if you start running low on pasta it will be easy to make more. Just have some hot water on the stove that you can bring up to a boil quickly. If you need more make it, if not you will always use the pasta later.