gallons of spaghetti.......need recipe

[grasswire]

I'm cooking for a political house party fundraiser where dinner will be served to an unknown number of people -- we're planning for 60-80. It's an old-fashioned spaghetti feed. I'll be making a meatless sauce. Any suggestions for making it extremely flavorful without any meat? Any recipes for quantity sauce?

Suggestions appreciated!

[NMDemDist2]

1. take a look at this one, they give the ounces of canned tomatoes so you can figure how many #10 cans

you'll need. beg borrow or rent some full size chafing/steam table pans and go to it!

Serving Size: 60

5 pounds lean ground beef
20 cups chopped onion
1/3 cup dried oregano
20 cloves garlic -- minced
5 cups dry red wine
2 ½ cups water
2 ½ tbs. ground cinnamon
1 2/3 tbs. salt
1 ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 ¼ tsp. pepper
146 ounces canned stewed tomatoes, undrained
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ gallons low fat milk
2 ½ pounds feta cheese
1 ¼ cups grated parmesan cheese, divided
10 large eggs
1 ¼ cups seasoned dry bread crumbs, divided
5 pounds uncooked pasta


1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Heat large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Brown beef until no longer pink. Drain. Sauté onions, oregano and garlic for 5 minutes. Add wine through tomatoes (7 ingredients), and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes or until thick.

3. Combine flour, milk, and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg in medium saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce heat, and cook for 7 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove milk mixture from heat.
Stir in feta cheese, half of Parmesan cheese and eggs.

4. Sprinkle half the bread crumbs into a 2 large professional-size baking pans coated with cooking spray. Place half of the cooked spaghetti into the 2 pans, top with half the beef mixture and then half of the cheese sauce. Repeat layers. Combine other half of Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs and
sprinkle over the top of pans.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until golden brown (about 1 hour if recipe is made ahead).
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. I found it cuts well into squares for serving. Wonderful aroma, very tasty. This recipe was used successfully by a church group

[grasswire]

2. wow, that looks delicious

...but we are trying to keep down costs significantly so all monies can go to the Senate campaign. So no feta, no ground beef, etc. This recipe is akin to the Greek pastitsio, I just realized. Good stuff. Thanks.

[hobbit709]

3. Spaghetti alla putanesca

See recipe here
http://www.recipesource.com/main-dishes/pasta/02/rec0211.html
It's got tomatoes, olives garlic, anchovies, etc. Very tasty and easy

[hippywife]

4. I make mine meatless

all the time now and sub mushrooms for the meat. But if you don't want to add mushrooms, the sauce can still be flavorful. I usually don't measure, been making it so many years I do it by sight alone, but I'll try to approximate something for you. You may also want to consider using a pasta other than spaghetti. Long spaghettis use more sauce than say a rigatoni or penne. The cooking time for them is a little longer but they will also stand up better to staying in the hot water til you're ready to serve if you under cook them just slightly.

This will make one large pot (5 quarts) which I think will feed about 10-12 people. So increase it as needed. I would probably still make this in single batches rather than trying to make one to feed that many people if you want the flavor to be preserved. I learned to make it from my Italian gran but she always started it with meat and added meatballs to it when it was close to being done.

2 TBS olive oil
1 TBS minced garlic
2 15 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes, undrained (plain - no added flavoring)
3 8 oz. cans of tomato sauce
3 6 oz. cans of tomato paste (reserve one)
water (see note in directions below)
2 TBS sweet basil (I can't abide the taste of oregano or Italian seasoning.)
1/2 c. grated parmesan
1/2 tsp. red pepper flake
salt, pepper, granulated garlic to taste

Place the olive oil in the pan and allow it to heat slightly before adding the minced garlic. Add the garlic and let it simmer but not brown. Add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and 2 cans of paste. Stir well to dissolve the paste and stir in water til it reaches the appropriate thickness. (I usually do this by adding warm water to each of the sauce cans so it also gets the last of the sauce out of the can, too.) Add the basil, salt, pepper, pepper flake, and granulated garlic (not too much since you started with garlic) and allow to simmer on medium heat stirring often. Once it gets hot, stir in the grated parmesan. Allow to continue to simmer, stirring often, until it cooks down just a tad and slightly thickens. If it isn't quite thick as you like, add the third can of paste and a tad more parm cheese. Taste and adjust your seasonings as you like.

You can also do this in a large crockpot and it works just as well.

If you are making this meatless because of the cost and not because of anyone's dietary restrictions (and how can you really know with this being a fundraiser and that many people coming) you can always buy a small amount of good Italian sausage links, add them to the pot in the beginning, and let them cook in the sauce for the flavor but not serve them.

The seasonings don't seem like very many or that they would give the sauce that much flavor but they do, along with the parm cheese. Oregano and Italian seasonings can be too bitter tasting to me (my mom used them) but my Italian gran only used sweet basil and never put anything like else in it, such as onion. It's probably all in what you are used to tasting so it's going to be hard to completely please everyone, anyway, if you think about it so keeping it simple is probably best.

I hope this works for you.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. We make a very simple Marinara sauce that can easily be scaled up

I will state the recipe in grocery store sized cans of tomatoes. Assume that four of these equal a number 10 can (the commercial size). The hardest part is slicing all the onions you'll need.

One can of tomatoes (I used San Marzano tomatoes and crush them by hand, but you can use any good crushed tomatoes from the start and save that effort.)

One small yellow onion, chopped into a rough dice.

Two to four cloves of garlic, chopped (to taste)

Dried Basil, Orgegano, and Parsley (all to taste)

Salt and pepper to taste.

Olive oil

Put the onion and garlic into a pot with olive oil in the bottom and sweat until transparent but not browned.

Add some of the herbs (no more than half what you might anticipate using). Cook another 30 seconds or so and then add the tomatoes.

Let the tomatoes get hot (a near boil). Lower the heat to simmer and let it go for 30 minutes or so. Taste and add more herbs and salt and pepper to taste.

That's it.

You can let this go longer.

You can add mushrooms or diced peppers at the start, with the onions, or you can add them later and increase the cooking time.

You can add red wine, but will need to increase the cooking time to allow the sauce to thicken again.

This is a thinner sauce than a traditional ragout, but has a nice, more 'fresh tomato' taste. The key here is to use the nicest tomatoes you can find. If the tomatoes are on the acidic side, add some sugar when you do your tasting toward the end (when you add the second batch of herbs.)

You can also substitute fresh herbs for dried. Or, to get a similar affect, add chopped fresh parsley at the end. Once cooked, it will be perceived by all as 'fresh herbs'.

As I said at the start, this recipe is easy to scale up . Use one large onion for every number 10 can (instead of one small onion for every grocery store can) I'd also start to reduce the onions as the number of cans increases. If you use 4 number 10s, use three large onions. For six cans, use five onions ..... etc. Scale the garlic quantity accoringly.

I suggest you make this sauce in a small batch first so you can geta feel for it and for how it tastes. That will make you an experience expert of D-Day!

[hippywife]

6. See, now that is

what I was alluding to when I was talking about not being able to totally please everyone. So much cooking is regional. I love, love, love! onion on a pizza but not cooked in my sauce. Green peppers I like in nothing. It is all according to what you grow up with, isn't it? Seems our food preferences are in many cases a throw back to our childhoods. As long as we had good cooks in our childhoods to emulate. :)

Altho, my mom used to make Italian hand grenades for my dad, and I'm sure they were good, but I just never acquired a taste for green peppers.

I have been known to saute some zucchini and yellow summer squash for the sauce in the summer, tho.

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Actually, the peppers I was suggesting were red sweet peppers, not green

And yes ...... we **are** influenced by our upbringing. I was so very fortunate to have had great culinary influences at home/

[Warpy]

9. I was fortunate in having a negative example

My mother hated cooking and it showed. We ate out a lot, and southern cafeterias showed me what food was supposed to taste like.

[Warpy]

8. I love zucchini in a simple tomato sauce

They complement each other very well and give the zukes a zing they don't ordinarily have.

Green sweet peppers always have a nasty, unfinished taste to me. I pay the extra for red or other colored, ripe peppers.

The only exception is green chiles.

[housewolf]

10. I'm with you on the green peppers...

To my mind, they "contaminate" anything they come near!

Same with (dare I say it???) - mushrooms!

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Hey, housewolf!!!!

How ya been? Long time no see.

[housewolf]

14. Back at 'cha - Hey!

Yeah, I've been a less-than regular lurker for some time now, but I've checked in here from time to time to see what everybody's been up to. It's great to be back. Thanks for your welcome, it's great to see you.

:hi:

[hippywife]

13. Hi, housewolf.

Nice to make your acquaintance. We can't all like everything, now can we? :)

[housewolf]

15. Thank you, Hippywife!

I'm happy to meet you here too. Don't you just love this group? The folks here are my DU-favorites, so friendly and helpful.

:hi:

[hippywife]

12. And I second

H2S's suggestion about making a single batch of whatever recipe you go with at home for dinner one evening to see how you like it and to play with it until it's to your liking.

[Tab]

16. I'll pass on the sauce but as for the pasta...

I load my water with garlic salt. The seasoned boil makes a big difference. And don't use oil, regardless of what your mother told you.

The other catch is to apply the sauce - whatever it might be - while the pasta is hot. When starch cools, it loses its ability to bond. Apply sauce while it's hot, and it will bond with the pasta and not slide off. So cook pasta, drain, and within a minute or so mix in the sauce.

If you dump in a bunch of garlic salt (or whatever) into the pasta water, it comes out just that much yummier.

[grasswire]

17. thanks, everyone, for the suggestions

I appreciate all the input!

We're calling it a People Get Ready Spaghetti Feed:


People get ready
There's a train a commin'
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels hummin'
You don't need no ticket
You just thank the lord
So people get ready
There'a a train to jordan
Picking up passengers
Coast to coast
Faith is the key
Open the doors and board them
There's hope for all
Among those loved the most
There ain't no room
For the hopeless sinner
Whom would hurt all mankind
Just to save his own
Have pity on those whose
Chances grow thinner
For there is no hiding place
Against the kingdom's throne
People get ready
There's a train a commin'
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels hummin'
You don't need no ticket
You just thank the lord

written in 1965 by Curtis Mayfield, inspired by the March on Washington

[merci_me]

18. I had to do a spaghetti dinner for about the same number

I had to organize the whole thing, appetizers to desserts, but had a lot of wonderful people offer to help. Well, five of us made sauce, at our individual homes, on a Saturday and on Sunday, a few hours before the dinner, the other four brought their sauce to my house and we dumped it all into the huge pot.

I had made and frozen about 300 meatballs for a few weeks before, but we kept those in a separate pot, with just sauce to cover, so it didn't flavor the sauce.

I'm a darn good cook, but never before or since, did the compliments fly like that and people asking for the sauce recipe. LOL, we gals had a laugh. We all wished WE had the recipe. Since all of us are "by gosh and by golly" cooks, tweaking our normal sauce from, say 10 servings to 25 and then dumping it all in a giant vat, we came to the conclusion, it was a one-time extravaganza.

We had a few guys ask us to make the sauce and they would bottle it, so we could sell it for fundraisers. LOL, how do you convince them, we hadn't a clue how to do it again, with the same results.