Pappardelle Bolognese: prepare ahead for crowd, how?

[jjdbike]

Hello friends,
I am the coordinating teacher of a program for kids that get in trouble. We are hosted by a middle school. The cafeteria is not responsible for feeding us but they go above and beyond doing just that. A friend and I want to cook and provide a special lunch for them, i.e. Pappardelle Bolognese. The challenges are, their "lunch break is at 10:30, and we are not allowed to use their kitchen, so we must prepare it ahead.
I am used to plating it fresh, i.e., fresh cooked pasta and a little pasta water, w/ a brief sauté in the bolognese sauce. Then adding lightly sauced pasta to plate topped w/ a little more sauce and fresh grated cheese.
Here's my question. How can I prepare this ahead of time and bring to school to serve the staff? Clearly I'll need to cook the sauce the day before. I believe that can only improve the flavor. Its the pasta and plating that are my challenges.

• One idea I am considering is getting a bunch of their plastic microwavable serving containers to bring home. We would do the same plating process as listed above but plating at home it in those containers (I live 10 mins from school) and bring them to school. A quick warm in their alto-sham or microwave then serve, allowing individuals to apply their own cheese.
• The other idea I am considering is bringing the sauce in one pot, and the mostly cooked pasta in another just short of al dente, and most of the water drained off and reserved. A quick reheat of everything then plate as usual. I believe that would create the best product and presentation, but the cafeteria staff would need to do the reheating and plating which isn't us exactly serving them.

What do you all recommend? Any other ideas?
Thanks in advance!
JD

[barelfly]

Can you use a few crock pots to do what you mention above somewhat, have the bolognese cooked on a warming setting and the pasta mostly cooked but then in the crock pot letting it come to and if needed you can dump the water, or most. Then just set up a serving station from that? Or a create some type of water bath set up for the pasta within the crock pot/pots?

You didn’t mention how many you would be serving, so hopefully a few crock pots would work for you?

And from both sides here - good on you for helping these kiddos as well as a nice gesture to the staff at the school!

[fzxdoc]

Wow. You sure set yourself some challenges. It's very difficult to serve this dish with precooked-and-held pasta without the pasta becoming gluey with time. Pasta likes to be served just as it finishes cooking. So you've got a high bar to clear on this one.

I'm going to watch this space to see if others come up with good ideas. I'd love to be able to cook ahead on pasta, especially when entertaining and having lots of other things going on with getting a big meal on the table. Or for pot lucks. I've just never figured out how to pre cook pasta and not have it end up starchy by serving time.

Kathryn

[jjdbike]

Thank for your replies!
About 20 people.
I like the idea of bags, but like I said, I'm only 10 mins from school. I would just keep it in large pot.

[fzxdoc]

No, jjdbike , bags for only the pappardelle. Not for the sauce or for the sauce on the pasta. The sauce can take care of itself in a science oven at school. I'm talking about my sous vide warming suggestion in the following post, of course.

K.

[fzxdoc]

Putting my thinking cap on:
I'm wondering if you could cook the pasta, put in sous vide bags, flash chill, then reheat using sous vide at the school?

Some people sous vide in large coolers, so you could reheat a lot of pasta at once. (I don't know how large your crowd is.)

K.

[RonB]

How about adding just enough sauce to the cooked pasta to keep it from sticking together so you can plate it at school?

You could get, (borrow?) some hot/cold packs, heat them and place on the bottom of a cooler with the bagged cooked pasta on top to keep it hot.

I also like fzxdoc 's idea of using a cooler filled with hot water and the vacuum sealed pasta. If you do that, you might want to do a test of holding the bagged pasta in hot water for the appropriate amount of time.

[jjdbike]

I love the idea of adding just enough sauce to keep from sticking. That would also allow the sauce to adhere to the sticky starch. I could retain some pasta water for serving, or just add it to sauce.
Thanks!

[Carolyn]

That is what my Mom always did, added some sauce into the pasta, so it wouldn't stick or get hard.

[STEbbq]

Can I ask why Pappardelle Bolognese? I assume it must have some significance here otherwise it would not be suggested. I am mostly looking for a hopefully fun story as I don’t have any good ideas on how to solve this one.

I mean, I’d lean towards something like hot dogs with all of the fixing or burgers which would be easier to manage.

[WayneT]

I like and concur with the recommendations from fzxdoc and RonB above.

[jjdbike]

Can I ask why Pappardelle Bolognese? I assume it must have some significance here otherwise it would not be suggested. I am mostly looking for a hopefully fun story as I don’t have any good ideas on how to solve this one.

I mean, I’d lean towards something like hot dogs with all of the fixing or burgers which would be easier to manage.

Yes of course.

First off these are cafeteria Reginald Thor food seriously. They’re foodies. They pride themselves on their traditional spaghetti and marinara they make from scratch. I told them about Pappadelle Bolognese. They asked me to make it for them.

When I read your reply, I considered grilling some chicken thighs, making a pan of bbq beans and a bowl of slaw. Then I realized, sauce & pasta was simpler. Plus, I plan on making a mega batch to keep some for my family and I. I believe, hope, that making the sauce the day before, and under cooking the pasta, tossing it in a little sauce 30 mins before serving, then plating w/ more sauce and topping with cheese will be good.
JD

[JCBBQ]

What time do you arrive at school? A pasta dish that is very similar and really works well warmed up is baked ziti. You can make it the day before and then try to convince them to let you use the oven to warm it up and if that’s not possible then bake it or warm it right before you go to school. Cambro it in coolers like a brisket until 10:30. Baked ziti should stay pretty hot and even if it’s luke warm it’s delicious. Also you can avoid over cooking the pasta by initially boiling the ziti VERY Al dente so that when you heat it it doesn’t over cook.

My 2 cents

[58limited]

+1 My experience with pasta is that it can become soggy if held for a long time. Very Al Dente is my recommendation.

[jjdbike]

What time do you arrive at school? A pasta dish that is very similar and really works well warmed up is baked ziti. You can make it the day before and then try to convince them to let you use the oven to warm it up and if that’s not possible then bake it or warm it right before you go to school. Cambro it in coolers like a brisket until 10:30. Baked ziti should stay pretty hot and even if it’s luke warm it’s delicious. Also you can avoid over cooking the pasta by initially boiling the ziti VERY Al dente so that when you heat it it doesn’t over cook.

My 2 cents

Hello again JCBBQ and friends,

JC thank you for your recommendation. You've convinced me! I loves me a recipe I can make ahead of time, especially one I can double and freeze half!

Baked ziti here we come!
JD

[JCBBQ]

Sweet! Post pics!

[jjdbike]

You know I'm going to ask for recipes : )

[fzxdoc]

Great choice!

Good suggestion, JCBBQ .

K.

[JCBBQ]

This is a really good one.

https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-best-baked-ziti-operation-abbondanza.html?m=1