Interactive Italian Dinner Party, Version 5

[Varmint]

As we discussed in this thread from 2 years ago, I host an annual dinner party for the summer clerks in our law firm. In every year but one, we've done Italian food, and although the Louisiana feast was great last year, we'll be returning to Italy again.

But this is no ordinary dinner party. Each guest is required to be involved in preparing or presenting at least one dish. I choose the menu, buy the ingredients, and do much of the prep work. I then just watch over the guests and give them pointers about cooking and plating. We generally have 20-30 attendees. Oh, we pair wine with each course, and we've traditionally had 5 courses plus some antipasti. It's a long night, but it's always a ton of fun. Hell, the lawyers in the firm try and bribe me to get an invitation!

Go back to the thread above if you want to know what I've done before, but I'm looking for fresh ideas. There's really only one rule: the dishes pretty much have to be made and cooked after the guests arrive. Thus, I can't do any long braises. We can make pasta, and we might be able to get luxury ingredients. But the guests' tastes will vary wildly, so I generally stay away from anything that would be considered unusual, such as offal.

So, suggestions?????

[Andrew Fenton]

Have them make mozzarella. It's easy, quick and blends the familiar (who doesn't like mozzarella?) with the exotic (who thinks of making it?) Serve it as a Capri salad or whatever: it'll blow the summer associates' minds.

[pedalaforte]

A couple of thoughts (some suggested in the previous post):

-- panna cotta for dessert. Make it first thing, as it needs fridge time to set up. (lemon is great)

-- i love the grilled pizza idea. We do it all the time. It's easy, fast, and you can choose from any number of toppngs. MAKE the pesto to spread on.

-- I can't believe you've never done filled pastas. Call them what you will (agnolotti, ravioli, etc.). Do them. They're easier than you might think. Be bold.

-- Maybe my top pick of "new" things people might not have tried. Savory flans. Parmesan flans made, of course, with good reggiano. But you can do spinach, RR pepper, squash (although that would be out of season). Flans are a major treat in, at least, Piedmont. I'll send you a great recipe (from Kramer's "Passion for Piedmont"). They're fun to make as a group also. Easy. Can't miss.

-- How about grilled asparagus (or broiled) with reduced balsamic vinegar? Easy. Perfect.

-- Gnocchi are easier than you seem to think. And they're are fast to make. Practice a little before the big date. We had them last night with -- get this -- browned lovage butter. Yes, lovage, used like sage (which we paired it against). We thought "who in Logan, Utah, is eating this right now? Hell, who ANYWHERE was eating it right then." Lovage!

-- Baked polenta w/carmelized gorgonzola on top with any kind of saucy topping (arrabiatta). Or, how about crostini with carmelized gorgonzola and fig slices (buy they dried from the store). Show them how to toast the crostini, but creamy gorg -- special treat: saute the figs in port a bit.

-- show people what good anchovies really mean. Lots of choices to play with there.

Ramblings. How about changing the order of things -- drinking a lot of wine early in the evening so no one cares how frou-frou the food things become, then just cracking some good sardines and slivered parm on good bread. ... that is, DRINK, be merry and eat. In that order, in other words.

Cheers

[Kevin72]

>Pizza Party: some on the grill, some in the oven. Have big batches of the dough made up beforehand, everyone brings toppings and, ahem, rolls their own.

>Gnocchi, as a number have suggested, are really fun and easy to make.

>If you've got enough grill space, a grigliata mista, just different meats simply grilled and topped with lemon and olive oil. Do a couple of porterhouse steaks Fiorentina style (hell, you're all lawyers, right? ), pork chops or tenderloin, maybe stuffed leg of lamb. You can grill some vegetables, or with kitchen space freed up since the meat's all grilling, do some in there.

>In keeping with your regional themes in past years (loved your Sicily meal, BTW), I highly recommend doing Rome this year. Get a hold of David Downie's Cooking the Roman Way and start planning a feast. Fettucine Alfredo and Bucatini all'Amatriciani are two crowd-pleasers. Plus you can incorporate gnocchi, a traditional Roman dish, into the meal as well. You can even do Roman gnocchi feast: do the potato gnocchi, then do semolina gnocchi alla romana, which are baked.

[Varmint]

I really want to do filled pastas. This is where I could make things interesting and can do some hearty braises for the filling. Hell, maybe I'll just do an all pasta dinner, which could be lots of fun. A bit filling, however!

I won't have any grill space at all this year, unfortunately. I'm doing it at my house, and my grill died. Having just renovated our kitchen, it's not yet in the budget to get a new grill!

[albiston]

I really want to do filled pastas.  This is where I could make things interesting and can do some hearty braises for the filling.  Hell, maybe I'll just do an all pasta dinner, which could be lots of fun.  A bit filling, however!

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How much time do you have for the cooking? Consider that you might nedd 3-4 hours for most classic meat braise fillings. Another possibility would be vegetable or cheese filled pasta. The filling takes much less time and if you absolutely want meat with that you can, especially with the vegetable ones, serve that as a ragout style sauce for the pasta. For example you could prepare artichoke ravioli with a mint flavored lamb ragout.

Another idea would be some sort of roast in porchetta: that is with a filling of garlic, rosemary and fennel seeds. The classic porchetta is made with a whole partially deboned suckling pig but I guess that would be unpractical in a home kitchen. You could use a (boned) pork loin, possibly with the skin till on and wrap it around the filling. Otherwise rabbit works great, if you and your guests eat it, and duck can be nice too.

[Varmint]

I'll have all day to get things ready before the guests arrive around 6. We can then assign folks to different teams to get some of the dishes ready for final cooking.

Thus, I can do a braise earlier in the day and have it ready as an ingredient for a filling for a pasta.

I also try and have no more than 1 dish of red meat. Sometimes I'll need some pancetta or prosciutto as a flavoring agent, of course, but only one course where the focus is red meat. That's why fowl and seafood are always desirable.

[kellytree]

how about risotto with shrimps and pancetta.

Edited June 7, 2005 by kellytree (log)

[therese]

I'd do zabaglione for dessert. Altogether last minute, you can use local eggs, and it will pair beautifully with fruit (strawberries if they're still in season locally).

The classic quick preparation secondo is some sort of scallopini, piccata and marsala both being nice (the marsala would be picked up later in the zabaglione). If you can't get nice veal you can do chicken (my least favorite), turkey (breast cut cross-wise works nicely), or pork tenderloin (again, cut cross-wise before pounding). A fun dish for a group to work on what with all the pounding, and no advance work necessary. Serve it with some sort of starchy puree (hmm, fava beans strike me as a nice idea) and a grilled version of whatever's in season veggie-wise.

[Varmint]

Risotto's always good, and I think it's time to revive it.

As far as the scallopini idea, I love it. My only concern is trying to get together 24 portions of those at one time. They're pretty much flash fried, so having 2 skillets going at once may be doable. I like it. Plus, you get folks doing the egg wash and dredging -- tons of fun!

Query: Is duck every cooked scallopini style?

[Varmint]

And again, I don't have a grill. Maybe I'll pick one up at a yard sale by July.

[ludja]

If you're willing and able to deep-fry, it would be very memorable to make homemade cannoli. Also, it's relatively interactive and simple to make.

If you don't have them you would have to purchase cannoli forms (hollow metal tubes). The dough is easy to make, as is the filling. I would fry them up before eating dinner; then fill them fresh afterwards. If you can get sheep's milk ricotta so much the better. Garnish one end with roasted pistachios, the other with grated bittersweet chocolate.

I would be tempted to make the whole dinner Sicilian/Sardinian. Lots of great dishes based on summer vegetables and it would be fun to work off a theme.

[Varmint]

Cannoli would be a good idea. I'm intrigued.

We did Sicilian/Sardinian last go around, so we'll not focus on a single region this year.

[Kevin72]

Risotto's always good, and I think it's time to revive it. 

As far as the scallopini idea, I love it.  My only concern is trying to get together 24 portions of those at one time.  They're pretty much flash fried, so having 2 skillets going at once may be doable.  I like it.  Plus, you get folks doing the egg wash and dredging -- tons of fun!

Query: Is duck every cooked scallopini style?

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On the scallopini, you could always start them in butter and brown them, then finish them in the oven. Top them with slices of prosciutto and slivers of parm the last five minutes or so in the oven.

Duck is served scallopini style (Mario Batali did a version where they are dredged in flour, browned, then finished with apricots or cherries and vin santo), but again you're dealing with lots of pans, getting the timing right on cooking them through, and that's alot o'duck to buy!

[therese]

As far as the scallopini idea, I love it.  My only concern is trying to get together 24 portions of those at one time.  They're pretty much flash fried, so having 2 skillets going at once may be doable.  I like it.  Plus, you get folks doing the egg wash and dredging -- tons of fun!

Query: Is duck every cooked scallopini style?

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You could certainly do duck scallopini style, though I've never done it. I'd probably avoid anything that required too much doodling around around with getting duck breast meat off the bone and then slicing it across the grain and pounding it, etc. as it could get a bit tedious. The flavor of the duck will also not be as pronounced given the cooking technique and garnish/sauce, so if you really wanted to used duck I probably wouldn't do this prep.

Pork tenderloin is the easiest option for scallopini IMO, and yes, you can hold the browned scallopini on a tray in the oven until they're all done and then finish them off. I've done scallopini this way (by myself, all last minute) for a dinner party of 12, so you should manage fine with help.

Since you've got no grill you might want to consider peperonata as a side dish: stewed peppers (choose several colors---I usually skip the green ones), sometime also onions, garnished with fresh basil. They don't take too long to stew, and group prep works well. I don't mind the skins in mine, but some people remove them ahead of time.

[pedalaforte]

Again --because the suggestion might have been lost -- FLANS. They are among the greatest edible bites on the planet.

Parmesan flans w/roasted red pepper sauce. Easy and dazzling and good. No, better than good.

Cheers

Edited June 7, 2005 by pedalaforte (log)

[Varmint]

I think a parmesan flan could be great. It also can be made in the second oven, which makes things easy.

[hathor]

Brodetto! Seafood/fish stew....lots of fun, you have the fish, everyone can get messy and you can't really screw it up. Want some local Marche recipes??

[Varmint]

I'll post pictures later, but I initially thought about doing an all pasta dinner, but then I went in a different direction. Many of the ideas came from Mario Batali recipes, with an occasional tweak here and there. Here's the final menu, with wine pairings:

Pizza Margherita

Duck Confit and Camembert Pizza

2004 Corte Majoli Pinot Grigio

2003 Corte Majoli Valpollicella

Prosciutto di Parma with Fresh Fig Salad and Pomegranate Dressing

2004 Torre Leverano Rosato

Pan-seared Triggerfish with Cucumber Soup

2003 Masciarelli Trebbiano d'Abruzzo

Ravioli filled with Goat Cheese and Pesto, with Quick Tomato Sauce

2003 San Simone Pinot Grigio

Fresh Tagliatelli with Wild Mushrooms and Black Summer Truffles

2003 Seghesio Dolcetto d'Alba

Braised Beef Short Ribs with Parmesan Polenta and Horseradish Gremolata

2000 Zaccagnini Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Riserva

Molten Chocolate Cake with Whipped Marscapone Cream

NV Selva Ducale Prosecco di Valdobbiadene

[Carlsbad]

If I were 30 years younger, I might be applying for a job.

[Varmint]

Here's the pictures. I failed to take shots of either pizza, unfortunately. The pizza gurus would have been proud of the char.

Also note that after the first couple of dishes, the wine started to take effect, so I cared less and less about presentation.

[therese]

It all looks great. I have to admit that I did a double take at the figs and prosciutto plate, checking back quickly to see exactly what the opaque red, fairly thick dressing was. Because it does look just a little bit like, um, ketchup (in this photo, at least). Tomatoes and pomegranates do both derive their color from lycopene, so that makes sense.

Pasta particularly lovely.

[Kevin72]

So, who provided the vision for the menu and the directions for all the cooking (wink, wink). How many were there ultimately? How did it pan out logistically?

You've got a brave bunch of eaters in your office!

[albiston]

That's quite a meal Dean! Really impressive.

Just curious: do you have an idea of what sort(s) of wild mushroom were used for the delicious looking spaghetti? It's really hard to say from the picture since they're hidden under that abbundant truffle shavings... I can just imagine the smell!

[Varmint]

That's quite a meal Dean! Really impressive.

Just curious: do you have an idea of what sort(s) of wild mushroom were used for the delicious looking spaghetti? It's really hard to say from the picture since they're hidden under that abbundant truffle shavings... I can just imagine the smell!

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Calling them wild mushrooms might be a stretch, as over here, anything other than white button mushrooms could be considered "wild". It was a mix of dried porcini, cremini, and shiitake. I reduced the porcini soaking liquid, too. It was a heavenly dish, but a bit too strong-flavored for several in the crowd who had never had truffles before. And I added a bit of good white truffle oil to each plate to really boost up that aroma. I have one truffle left over, so I think I know what I'm having for dinner tonight!