A few years back I got talked into taking over a long-running spaghetti dinner that my church youth group puts on as a mission fund-raising effort. My friend who ran it before had this thing down to a science and while she gave me her instructions, I never helped out with it before she left and I’m not as familiar with the routine for cooking the vast quantities of spaghetti noodles as I’d like. Some of the parent volunteers she worked with are still around, but last year was a bit of a struggle with getting the spaghetti cooked in time and held in a serving state without drying out or getting mushy. I’ve spent the last three years changing the sauce recipe, the herb butter recipe and the salad situation…this year I want to tackle the pasta.
So if you’ve worked one of these dinners before, what are your best tips for cooking, holding and not running out of spaghetti? I have access to a full kitchen with huge pots, strainers and warming tables. The dinner is this coming Sunday, so I need answers fairly fast.
Can you par-cook it beforehand, store in cold water in a tub, then give it a dip in boiling water just before serving? That’s basically how they do it at Olive Garden, etc.
Worked in a few restaurants/caterers who did the pre parboil thing very successfully. But I never saw the pre cooked pasta stored in water. (How does that work? Won’t it get very soggy, very fast?)
Instead it was drained, tossed with a slight amount of olive oil, so as not to stick together, then covered so as to not dried out. When needed, a couple of minutes immersed in boiling water is all it takes!
Asian noodle shops successfully do the same thing, and they often uses rice noodles which are much fussier to deal with!
I’ve never done a fundraiser but if I wanted to cook a lot of spaghetti quickly, I’d use spaghettini which takes about 4 minutes to cook. Also, to my taste and that of other people I asked, it tastes better too, probably because it has a larger surface to volume ratio which helps the sauce give it taste.
When I worked for Pizza Hut back in the 70’s that’s how they prepared the cavatini and spaghetti. Since we sold so little of it it was precooked and then portioned out Into plastic baggies, then dumped into hot water to reheat and then drained. I’ve considered doing that but in multi-serving parcels. Would love to precook all of it, just didn’t know how feasible that would be.
Ok, here’s the update. Saturday I precooked three batches…the first five-pound bag. Rinsed it thoroughly in cold water until cool, drained it well then mixed in olive oil. Put it in big giant mixing bowls and covered with plastic wrap. In fridge until Sunday afternoon…when I discovered that none, I repeat none, of the men who have done the pasta cooking in the past had volunteered this year. I found this out about, oh, ten minutes before I was supposed to feed the kids who were working, so I got the water boiling and dipped the first bunch of precooked to feed them. It came out fine. As people started arriving for the first seating, I started on regular spaghetti and then used the precooked to supplement whenever there might be a wait. By alternating, I managed to never run out of noodles and there was no waiting. I had a small pot with a strainer for reheating,a huge pot for cooking, and another huge pot with just boiling water to replenish nthe other two pots. One time I didn’t stir thoroughly and had to pitch some clumps, but nothing sat around long enough in the warmers to dry out, and one of the pickiest diners came back to tell me how perfectly al dente her spaghetti was. We had a bigger turnout than last year and I had to delve into the emergency, just in case stash. Ended the night with four extra servings left. Whew! Next year, I may just precook it all! Not happy that the men all bailed, but the women took over all the other jobs that I usually do and were very supportive, ie. stayed out of my way while I flailed through to a solution while I was trying not to panic. I somehow managed to have to work at each and every workstation through the night, as well as haul the mixer out to whip up another pound of herb butter between seatings, but it all came together and there were plenty of people on clean-up, so I got to leave earlier than they did!