Supper Partying: Becca Wang’s Guide to Throwing a Pasta Party

I cannot get enough of pasta parties. There are few things that fill me with as much joy as seeing a bunch of friends chatting, making pasta and drinking wine around my table. It’s exceptional for mingling, it doubles as an activity and is very easy to prep ahead. Homemade pasta is also low-stakes – aka practically impossible to mess up – which means that everyone can have a go and you don’t have to worry if the standard of the food is up to scratch.

The only caveat with the pasta party is that it can’t be a huge blowout, so curb the wine towards the end of the night unless you want to be cleaning flour for days. Your guest list will ultimately be dictated by your bench space, but you can also roll out pasta on the dining table. If you ask me, there is something casually chic about having a mix of people standing around the kitchen and sitting at the table. It feels like an elevated, grown-up version of a house party.

Before the pasta-making portion of my pasta party, I like to serve snacks. How are your guests going to work effectively if they’re hungry? For my most recent party, I made a seared peach and burrata salad, two-cheese-stuffed zucchini flowers, some bakery focaccia (I buy mine from Riser) and warmed Sicilian olives. Other snacks you can throw together a couple of hours before people arrive include Gildas, gnocchi fritti with cured meats, vitello tonnato and grilled prawns with salsa verde. I also always serve bread, and save some for soaking up the pasta sauce later.

You don’t need a pasta machine to have a pasta party. What you do need is a rolling pin and some time to research. For a true pasta party, you need to make two to three types of pasta, I always aim for at least one long and one short shape. Long pastas that can be hand-cut include pappardelle, pici and fettuccine. For short shapes, cavatelli, orecchiette and trofie are fun to make with minimal equipment and skill. Make the dough a few hours or even the night before your guests arrive. There’s nothing worse than guests going hungry so make sure you have at least 100 grams of dough per person. Give your guests a tutorial before you send them off on their own: demonstrate how to knead, roll, cut and shape the pasta (don’t just show them a Youtube video). Make sure to alternate people between shapes to keep them on their toes. Distribute some trays lined with tea towels for the finished pasta, and have a large pot of water sitting on the stove so you can cook as you go. While they’re working hard, you can get started on warming up the sauces and salting the pasta water.

One of the best things about a pasta party is that you can make most of the sauces in advance. For long pasta shapes, my favourites are bolognaise, short rib ragu, amatriciana and gricia. For pappardelle recently, I made Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce – it’s a real low-effort, high-reward treat. I paired orecchiette with sauteed anchovies and zucchini and a heavy squeeze of lemon. When it comes to short shapes you can pretty much pair pasta with anything that cooks quickly in a pan: prawns, garlic and fresh tomato; broccoli rabe and fennel sausage; and fresh peas and ricotta. Keep fresh herbs and pecorino on hand for garnishing.

While my guests are snacking, I like to have light and fresh drink options – vermouth and tonic, mini dry Martinis, some chilled red. While the pasta’s flowing, crack open the wines – depending on the food, light to medium-bodied reds are crowd-pleasers (think chianti, valpolicella and nero d’avola). Vermentino, greco di tufo and soave love seafood and fresh sauces like pesto.

When it comes to a big meal, I cannot endorse finishing with amaro enough – neat, on ice or with orange. My current favourites are San Simone and Fragrante. At the last pasta party I threw, I made a tiramisu for dessert and spiked the espresso with some coffee amaro – two birds, one stone.

When it comes to pasta recipes, Broadsheet has got you covered with our pasta hub but below are Becca’s recipes for pasta-approved snacks.

Serves 2
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
3 ripe yellow peaches, pitted and sliced into eighths
1 burrata
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Handful of fresh basil leaves
Flaky salt
Cracked pepper

Method
Grill or sear your peaches until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper. Spread on a large plate and tear large pieces of burrata off, place over the peaches. Garnish with basil leaves. Pour a generous amount of EVOO over everything and season with a big pinch of sea salt and a little bit of cracked pepper.

Serves 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
400g strained ricotta
1/3 cup parmesan or pecorino romano, grated
1 lemon, zested and juiced
4 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
A pot of neutral oil (e.g. peanut oil, vegetable oil, canola oil etc.)
8 zucchini flowers
200ml beer or soda water, chilled
½ cup all-purpose flour
Flaky salt

Method
Combine ricotta, parmesan, lemon zest and juice, anchovy fillets and a pinch of salt. Place filling in a small piping bag and gently fill each zucchini flower – leave enough room to twist the tops to “seal”. Be careful not to overfill. Rest on a tray until ready to fry.

Heat a pot of neutral oil on med-high until it registers 180 degrees Celsius. With a fork, gradually whisk the beer or soda water into the flour in a large bowl. Coat each zucchini flower in the batter and drop into oil. Do not overcrowd the pot. Remove the flower from the oil when golden brown. Set on paper towel-lined plate or tray and season with salt immediately. Serve hot, with a cheek of lemon.

Note: serve leftover ricotta mixture with focaccia or use it as a pasta topping.

Keep up with Becca Wang over on @supper.partying