by Jenise » Mon Nov 20, 2006 10:54 am
Howie, it went extremely well.
As I guess I explained, I precooked the pasta to my idea of VERY al dente, which was about 2/3 of the minimum time recommended by the manufacturer (Ronzoni). I shocked the pasta in ice water, drained it well, then tossed it with olive oil (about 1 tblsp per pound) and moved each batch into large zip loc bags. Based on one test batch, I expected each batch to need one minute of additional cooking time, but by the next day when the actual event took place, some additional softening had occurred overnight in the bags and the pasta did not need any further cooking, just reheating. So I emptied each bag into the boiling pasta water (saved from the day before in a 16 qt stock pot), stirred it, and immediately started pulling the pasta back out (with a spider) and moving it into another warm pan. When I had a roasting pan full, we started serving dinner and a runner refreshed the serving area with hot, steaming fresh pasta every two minutes.
That was the cool part. We served 50 people and everybody got a plate of obviously hot, steaming pasta. The feeling that this was very hot fresh food just like you'd get in your own home was perfect.
Diners ate about 12 lbs of the 15 lbs I cooked. Which was just fine--at $1/box, that's cheap insurance against big eaters and the possibility of a dropped bag or pot that goes straight to the trash.
Oh, and a note about the sauce my friend made: it was an old Sunset Magazine recipe called Bolognese Beauregard. We have no idea what that name refers to, but the sauce was a thick, meaty, bright sweet-tomato meat sauce that was possibly more immigrant-Italian than Italian-Italian, but it was excellent and just perfect for the occasion. Very different from what I myself make but I loved it.
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov
