Reception Food? Go Italian, Part One

Photo Credit: www.megahowto.com

I live in the Northeast, so I’m not sure everyone across the country suffers from the same thing.  We go to weddings to share in the joy of our friends getting married, and then we head over to the reception hoping for a good meal.  Yet, when it’s time for the meal, we find that it’s the same, tired food that we always get at a wedding.

Don’t get me wrong.  Some of it can be quite tasty.  But how many times do we need to see ziti, baked chicken, polish sausage with peppers and roast beef sitting in its own liquid (oh yeah, au jus) before we stop looking forward to going to receptions?  No, cake just isn’t enough to get over the horror of facing the same food time and time again.

Well, ziti gives us an idea for the possibility of something different for wedding food.  Why not go all out and go Italian across the board?

The reason people have ziti and the rest at wedding is that it’s relatively inexpensive food that can feed a lot of people.  But it’s boring and staid; probably, if you’re in other areas of the country and this isn’t your typical wedding fare, you’re probably in agreement with me that you keep being subjected to the same food.

An Italian meal wedding would change things up some.  Let’s start with the pasta.  I hate ziti because it’s almost always too mushy.  It might be because it’s been sitting in that pan for a day or two.  Instead of going that route, why not be more creative?  There are two different ways you could present the food.

One, you could hire a few people who set up their little stoves.  Then you allow your guests to go up and request the items they want to mix together, and the cooks heat everything up while your guests stand there waiting for it.  The food would be inexpensive, but paying for the cooks might cost you.  Still, the food would be fresh, and it would add something different to your wedding.

Two, you could still set it all up on a long table, where guests would come by and put their own meals together.  It’s easy to have someone continually replace up to three different pasta types, such as spaghetti, macaroni, and bow ties.  Then you can have three or four sauces already mixed together and being kept heated in some fashion, such as tomato sauce, alfredo, bolognaise, and whatever your fourth sauce might be.  Add a couple of different cheeses, spices, and small vegetables, and every person has something a bit different.  You can also have big bowls or crockpots of meatballs, maybe two styles of meatballs.

The thing about having this kind of wedding is that there are all types of choices of pasta, so you could go crazy with it, and it still doesn’t cost all that much.  As long as the pasta doesn’t get too old, and it won’t initially, your guests will enjoy it.  Even if it’s a sit down meal, the same type of thing could occur, as you give your guests a checklist at every table of what they’d like, and it could easily be put together and brought to them.  You can even still have ziti on the list if you’d like, but you can also add other meats such as chicken or pork, even shrimp if you’re in the spending mood.

There’s more in the second half of this article, so check it out.

See more:
Wedding Reception Food Ideas
Wedding Food Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive
Eat, Dring & Be Marry!