I hope some of you have Pizza and pasta, I’m starting an all you can eat pasta night and was wondering how you hold p[asta and cook it to order. We have a hot table for the sauces, I do have shrimp and chicken scampi now but we finish the pre cooked pasta right in the scampi pan. I’m looking for a more massive proccess, thanks all!
We do not serve pasta in our place, but back when I worked for a place that did a lot of it, we prepped pasta in large quantities. We cooked it to just short of ready to serve, drained, rinsed and chilled it quickly. Then we portioned it in the quantity we wanted to finish at the same time. The portions would be coiled/rolled and stacked in full pans with parchment between layers. Mostly we did individual portions, but we also did larger portions for the lunch buffet hot table.
We kept a very large pot simmering during the rush and would take the prepped pasta and, using a large handled strainer, put it in the simmering water for about a minute to get it hot, lift it out and let it drain, and then combine with sauces or whateever other process depending on type and presentation.
The preped pasta is good for a couple of days so you can get ahead on prep without much fear of waste.
Do a Google search for “pasta rethermalizer”…
We’ve taken the pre-prep another step in that we bag and freeze portions so that they are practically indefinite . . as long as you use them within two weeks. We have no drop in quality, and it takes the same 45 to 60 seconds to rethermalize the pasta in hot water.
For all you can eat spaghetti, we would boil and chill a WHOLE BUNCH of noodles and portion into plastic bags. Store under prep station. I have a pasta cooker with 4-sections to reheat, so four portions at a time can go. SECRET TIP: If you have a cook top, place a roasting pan or some other heat resistant 3" to 6" deep pan on the stove on simmer. Place stainless or plastic silverware baskets (the round perforated ones you use to hold your forks and such) in the pan. Place noodles in the strainers to order, and reheat. Remove with tongs, dump noodles, return to water bath. The plastic is designed to withstand the boiling water, and it is inexpensive solution.
Portioned meat sauce and red sauce are in cooler/freezer to be microwaved or pan sauteed to order with the pasta. We portion 4oz of dense meat sauce into plastic souffle cups and freeze . . . microwave and add 2 oz of red sauce, and we get a small portion of servable . . . double for the full size spaghetti.
We do pasta to order, but the way we do it can be done for AYCE (all you can eat) as well. I use a countertop Nemco pasta cooker. It’s not the greatest pasta cooker, but for $700, it works fine for my purpose. I pre-cook my pasta to Al Dente, cool, oil and then bag. When we get an order, we nuke it till hot, mix it with sauce and serve. Our customers love it. For larger catering orders, we just rejuvenate the pasta in the same pasta cooker for a couple of minutes and serve.
Thank you everyone, I think I got it now. I will start my all you cen eat next week and let you know how it goes.
Hannahbannanas,
how do you make the shrimp scampi?
We use 5 21/25 tail on but shelled frozen shrimp, toss them in a skillet with pomace oil and house seasoning. Just as they start to turn white, we add 1 oz of our garlic harb butter sauce ( Real butter, basil, oregeno, fresh minced garlic ) some white wine and continue cooking. Then we add pre-cooked fettucini and a squirt of lemon juice and flip the ingredients together warming the pasta. Then we grab the pasta with our tongs, place it it a large round salad bowl, the kind with the 1-2 inch rim, and pour the shrimp and remaining sauce on top, hit it with some parsley for garninsh and serve it with a Michette dinner roll and butter. We have the description on the menu and the servers explain how we serve it, we’ve only had 1 guest so far “explain” that they like their shrimp in a rarebit served with shrimp alone… as I’ve seen that and served it elsewhere, we serve it our way. I plan on having all my food photographed and placed on the online menu very soon. I’m going to get my 4, yes 4 wisdom teeth pulled today 
at age 45, I’m not looking forward to it so I will be slowed a bit this week. I promise to get right back in it by the weekend!
I’m very interested in sharing recipes and ideas, Lord knows I have a million of them but always looking for more. I have a lot of interesting proccesses involving microwaves that turn out amazing finished dishes. I think it’s a tool that is not used to it’s fullest potential. I’m actually looking and getting another one lol. The steaming possibilities are endless from veggies to chicken, brownie desserts and more.
I pity you. I had four impacted wisdom teeth removed. Lordy, it hurt for a week or more as I cannot stand Vycodin (misspelled on purpose to get past the stupid censor) or those other painkillers. They must have wrenched my mouth open while I was under because I could not really open my mouth much for a couple of days.
Remember, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Of course, it can also kill you. :lol: