How
To Plan a Spaghetti Dinner
How
To Plan a Spaghetti Dinner
Most
spaghetti dinners are either used as a fund raiser or as very inexpensive
'everybody can afford to attend' type of get-togethers. First of all you need to
decide how much people would be willing to pay and how much of that you can
justify using as food costs. If you go really fancy, you could serve fresh
pasta.
I haven't done this but I've been told that
pasta can be
cooked ahead of time
(day before), then cooled quickly in cold water, drained then toss lightly with
cooking oil to keep it from sticking together, covered with plastic wrap or damp
towels and stored in a fridge. (overnight- in big buckets refrigerated) and
reheated briefly (a few servings at a time) in boiling water, or just pour very
hot water over pasta to re heat. So, if you have the time or access to the
kitchen both the sauce and pasta can be cooked ahead of time. Unless you have
professional sized pots, it's
easier to cook
sauces in batches that would serve 25, just make lots of batches.
If you are cooking pasta at the time of serving, it is
very difficult
to work with. The water takes a VERY long time to boil, and you can only cook 2
batches of pasta before the water gets too starchy and requires changing ... so
the reheating is better. You
reheat by dunking
it into boiling water briefly until hot, using an insert, colander or metal
basket. Have more than one pot of boiling water ready. Try this out in a small
test batch.
Or combine with sauce and heat casserole-style in big pans if you feel
that this method would be acceptable.
TIPS - Been there done that:
In my experience, a 500g (+- 1lb) box of pasta feeds 4-6 hungry people,
depending on how hearty the sauce is (more filling sauce = less pasta per
portion). Obviously it also depends on what else you are serving - if you have
a starter, salads and breads, and a dessert, you will need much less pasta.
Not sure about the sauce quantities because I make my own, but about half or 2/3
of a cup per serving should be about right. See how much sauce you'd use for a
pound of pasta and multiply accordingly. (BTW for a bake I would use short pasta
rather than spaghetti.)
~~
We just finished with a spaghetti supper for around 200 people. We could have
fed another 100 with all the food prepared. This was a first-time trial, so I
wanted to have enough to feed any walk-ins. It was a fundraiser for our youth
and a mission trip they are planning this summer. I worked out a very good
spaghetti sauce based on things I got here and there. The thing I want to
share is: our spaghetti pasta was well complemented and wanted to share
our method. The evening before the supper I cooked enough spaghetti for 144
servings (based on package comments). I did 18 pounds dry spaghetti. I salted
and oiled the water. After spaghetti was cooked according to package
directions, I drained it and rinsed it with cold water until it was completely
cold. You need to mix it around as you are rinsing so it all gets rinsed
and cold. I put it in containers and oiled it once more. I did this at about a
pound or so at a time so it was all equally oiled. The I sealed the containers
and refrigerated them immediatly. The following evening we used pasta pans with
inserts, brought water to a boil, placed already cooked spaghetti into boiling
water and stirred it with a fork. Brought it to a hot temperature, then drained,
placed it in a warm 200 degrees Nesco roaster. I oiled this once again,
slightly and it kept very beautifully. I used olive oil for this. At the same
time we had to be cooking more spaghtti. We cooked that, drained, rinsed with
hot water, oiled slightly and placed in the Nesco roaster. Our supper was a
success. On Sunday we reheated some of the leftover spaghetti that had be cooked
on Friday evening. It was beautiful. No stick at all. Hope this helps someone.
A big THANKS to Lynnsey and Joan for the above tips!
FANCIER FUND RAISING
OPTIONS!
Caesar salad or a variety of salads, pasta with a choice of 2 sauces, one
tomato/veggie/chicken or regular ground beef/tomato and the other creamy/shrimp
or just plain alfredo type (shrimp optional). Problem is you have to have
enough for a choice. If this is a fund raiser, the Committee should agree before
hand to buy any
leftovers
at cost, or have some way of selling leftovers. If you just have one sauce,
less chance of leftovers. Leftovers can also be donated to the food bank or
frozen.
Have a great
dessert
table, cheese cakes or some
thing you can just slice and serve per person, or
ask for
donations
for the dessert table.
Whatever is being served with the spaghetti, will have a direct effect on how much spaghetti to allow per person. Cook up a pkg. of spaghetti and see how many servings you would get out of a set weight of pasta, usually 3-5 per lb. This will vary depending on the age of the people being served and the time of day as well as if it's being served as a buffet or being plated or if it's an all-you-can-eat. Then allow a measured amount of sauce per serving. When serving the sauce scoop it onto the plates using a pre-determined measure, even if it's just a small coffee mug or measuring cup you can quickly dip into the sauce.
Churches or
clubs, can
ask for donations towards the dinner
of canned tomatoes, pkgs.
of spaghetti etc. to cut costs and maybe even allow for the meal to be free or
almost free.
Here is some info
I found on the net with no links back to any main page, although
it was
something to do with a church dinner. The information is a real find so here it
is,
and thank you to whoever originally posted it.
Complete Spaghetti Dinner - Serves 50-60 people
(Valentine’s
Day fund-raiser)
Spaghetti:
10 pounds spaghetti
10 jars spaghetti sauce
5 pounds hamburger
7 French bread
3 bottles parmesan cheese
Dinner plates
--
Salad:
6-7# salad mix
2 bottles Ranch salad dressing
2 bottles French salad dressing
2 bottles Italian salad dressing
Salad bowls
--
Dessert:
2 lb. of margarine in 1/4 lb. squares
4 cans crushed pineapple
4 white cake mixes
4 cans cherry pie filling
2 bowls cool whip
Dessert plates
--
To Make Cake:
Spray bottom of 9x13 cake pan with Pam. (use 1 cake pan per cake.) Pour 1 can
crushed pineapple in bottom of pan and smooth out. Pour one (dry) cake mix over
pineapple.
Layer 2 sliced cubes (1/2 c. ea. cube) of butter over cake mix. Pour one can
cherries over butter. Bake in preheated oven of 350 for 40-50 minutes. Top
with cool whip after it has cooled!
Set up tables to make it look romantic. Use candles and decorate tables. Have the teens serve the people. Take their orders so you know exactly what they want on their plate. Do a "suggested donation" so if people can't afford to go, they still can to enjoy the fellowship! When we did this fundraiser, others gave more of a donation and that evened it out for those who couldn't. It was the "talk of the church" for a week!
Sauce for 100
3 lb.
hot Italian sausage
10 lb. meat loaf mix (beef, pork, veal)
10 large cans Italian "pear" tomatoes
20 medium size green peppers, chopped
10 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste
10 (1 lb.) cans regular tomatoes
20 large onions, chopped
20 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 c. sugar
20 tsp. oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 c. olive oil
-
Fry peppers and onions briefly in olive oil. Remove to large kettles. Brown meat loaf mix quickly, breaking it up as it cooks. Add to kettles with tomatoes, garlic and oregano. Remove sausage from casing, break up and add mixing all thoroughly. (A wire potato masher works fine for this job.) Simmer about 2 hours, stirring as needed. Add tomato paste, sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Continue simmering 1/2 hour. Add water if needed to keep from sticking or to thin for serving.