The Family Style One

LET'S EAT

THE DINNER PARTY- THE FAMILY STYLE ONE

MENU TO SERVE 6 PEOPLE

SNACK- MORTADELLA, RICOTTA AND PISTACHIO CROSTINI

STARTER- ITALIAN WEDGE SALAD

MAIN- PORK RIB AND SAUSAGE RAGU, GNOCCHETTI SARDI

PUDDING- MASCARPONE MOUSSE, VERMOUTH FRUIT

Welcome to The Dinner Party. Like everything else you’re going to read from me, this menu is a combination of easy bits that just rely on great ingredients, and things that if you prepare ahead will make your life so easy on the night. Ina Garten taught me that. The queen of hosting showed me that you can pull out a jar of fancy olives, chuck some chopped parsley and lemon zest on them and say “look what I made you”! And people will EAT. IT. UP. Because truly, cooking is about being clever with your ingredients, and cooking for a crowd is about being clever with your menus. Using a quality ingredient and having the confidence to serve it very simply is nothing but sensible, and is a technique every restaurant you love uses. Take burrata. Burrata is on 90% of London menus because not only is it a surefire money maker, but because it is low effort for the kitchen. A burrata starter which only requires the dressing of some bits or the toasting of some bread or nuts perhaps, leaves the kitchen time to do more complicated stuff like a grilled sardine or a fritto misto. Menu design (and life…?) is all about balancing easy and hard, long and short, time and money. Wow this is getting profound. Let’s get on with it. 

I don’t know why I have specifically named this dinner party “The Family Style One” when I generally always advocate for family style dining - by which I mean, big plate in the middle, everyone helps themselves. 

Maybe this is the Family Style One because the menu reminds me of one of the most iconic families in culture - The Sopranos. The menu’s both Italian and American, so I guess you could say it was Italian-American, but considering there’s no baked ziti (and there most likely will be in a coming edition) I think family style says it best. Piles of pasta in a red meaty sauce plonked on the table for everyone, gangsters and children alike, to help themselves; stiff British dinner party etiquette left at the door; in favour of sharing and shouting and spilling. That is family style to me.

THE MENU

TO SERVE 6 PEOPLE

SNACK- MORTADELLA, RICOTTA AND PISTACHIO CROSTINI

STARTER- ITALIAN WEDGE SALAD

MAIN- PORK RIB AND SAUSAGE RAGU, GNOCCHETTI SARDI

PUDDING- MASCARPONE MOUSSE, VERMOUTH FRUIT

 

SNACK- MORTADELLA, RICOTTA AND PISTACHIO CROSTINI

Crostini or rather, things on toast are literally a gift to a party menu. Everyone wants to eat them, they look great and they are easy as hell. As these go especially well with a drink, my recipe for a great welcome cocktail - the Bar Italia - is here: https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/batch-cocktail-recipes#slide-9

For 12 Crostini-

1 ciabatta, sliced into 12 thin slices

2-3 tbsps olive oil

1 clove garlic

250g best quality ricotta

Zest of half a lemon, grated

Salt

Pepper

100g sliced Mortadella

1 tbsp Pistachios, roughly chopped

Preheat your oven to 180

Lay the sliced bread onto an oven tray and drizzle with the oil, turning and smearing both sides of the bread in it for optimum coverage. Toast in the oven for 10 minutes or until all the toasts are an even golden. Keep an eye on it and take any out that are getting darker quicker, ovens often have hot spots and this can happen. When the toasts are out of the oven, rub with the garlic clove. The hot bread will suck up that garlic flavour. Transfer to kitchen paper to cool. 

Season the ricotta with salt and pepper and the lemon zest. Ricotta is bland- it needs this!

When you are ready to serve, use a spoon to smear the ricotta onto the toasts. If your mortadella is in large slices then you may need to tear it up into smaller pieces. Then drape your mortadella in glorious meaty pink ruffles on top of the crostini. Finally, sprinkle each toast with some chopped pistachios and a drizzle of oil if you like. 

MAKE AHEAD- 

• You can toast your crostini earlier in the day and leave to cool before transferring to a lined, airtight container. 

• Season your ricotta and leave in the fridge for up to 2 days, just re-mix before serving

SUBSTITUTIONS- 

• Mortadella can be swapped with literally any good thinly sliced Italian salumi- prosciutto, parma ham, fennel salami etc. If you want to reduce your meat intake or have veggie guests, use grilled marinated artichokes or aubergines instead and a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

• Ricotta is great here because it is creamy and easy to eat, but if you can’t get the good stuff, mascarpone, mozzarella (torn and seasoned) or stracciatella (if you can find it) would also work super well. 

STARTER- ITALIAN WEDGE SALAD

If you haven’t heard of wedge salad before, it is a truly fab, kitschy American salad. Basically it’s a large wedge of iceberg lettuce served drizzled with a creamy blue cheese dressing and sprinkled with crispy bacon bits. I love a wedge salad but I also love a bitter leaf with blue cheese, so I decided to riff on the classic with a few Italian ingredients and make a very classy, beautiful and easy starter that is simultaneously light and punchy. I highly recommend serving this with some lovely warm bread too.

For the pancetta crumb- 

100g pancetta, diced

20g panko breadcrumbs

For the dressing-

150ml buttermilk

40g mayo

150g gorgonzola dolce (rind removed)

30ml water

Salt and pepper to taste

A handful of chives, finely chopped

1 small iceberg lettuce

1 treviso radicchio

1 pink radicchio

The leftover lemon you zested for the crostini

4 tbsps olive oil

Salt and pepper

To make the crumb, place a small frying pan on a low heat and add the pancetta. As the pan heats up, the fat from the pancetta will render and you will end up with lots of delicious pork fat and crispy pancetta pieces. When the pancetta is cooked and crisp (this will take 10/15 mins on a low heat), remove it but keep the fat in the pan. Add the panko to the fat and turn the heat to medium. Turn the panko in the fat as it cooks, coating it well. It will take about 8 minutes to turn a golden brown, at which point drain on some kitchen paper and leave to cool before combining with the pancetta. 

(FYI THIS IS ALSO EXCELLENT ON QUITE LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE.)

For the dressing, combine the ingredients in a nutribullet or food processor and blend until smooth, check the seasoning and adjust if necessary.

When you are ready to serve, trim but don’t completely remove the hard base of your lettuces, then cut each one into roughly 6 wedges. 

Lay them onto one large or two medium flat plates drizzle with the olive oil, lemon juice and season. Then take your dressing and spoon it over, you don’t want to completely cover the wedges, the colours of the leaves are too beautiful! Finally, sprinkle the lakes of dressing that are pooling on the plate with the pancetta panko and the chives. 

MAKE AHEAD- 

• The dressing can be made the day before if you like. It will become stiff in the fridge, so bring it out and leave it to come to room temp before you use it. If it is still stiff, add a spoonful or two of cold water, but make sure to adjust the seasoning if necessary

• The panko can be made up to 6 hours ahead and stored at room temperature on kitchen towel but uncovered.

SUBSTITUTIONS- 

• Leave out the pancetta and just fry the panko in 3 tablespoons of olive oil to keep it veggie- add a crushed whole garlic clove to the pan to perfume it

• If you can’t find the many varied radicchios or any at all, you could take a couple of bulbs of raw fennel and wedge that, along with cos, romaine or little gem.

MAIN- PORK RIB AND SAUSAGE SUGO, GNOCCHETTI SARDI

Braised meat is one of my favourite things to give people I love, and it is also a super dinner party option because it genuinely improves with age and should definitely be made ahead of time. Pasta is also handy dinner party fodder because it is a cheap way to feed a crowd. This dish is my version of a Sicilian Sugo di Maiale- Pork sugo. Sugo means a tomato based sauce, and typically the pasta is served first, tossed in the sugo and the braised meat comes after as a secondi. Here we are just piling it all together for a joyful and plentiful feast.

For the Sugo

6 pork ribs- ask your butcher for them to be even in size 

6 good quality italian sausages- I like fennel here

4 tbsps olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 celery, diced

4 cloves garlic, sliced

2 tsp dried chilli flakes

2 sprigs of rosemary

2 bay leaves

125ml red wine

3x 400ml tins of plum tomatoes

Salt and pepper

1 Parmesan rind if you have any

800g gnocchetti sardi/cavatelli small pasta

Grated parmesan or pecorino to serve

Preheat your oven to 130

Place a large casserole or saucepan with a lid on a medium heat. Add the oil and then when it has heated add the sausages and brown them on all sides- about 10 minutes. Meanwhile season the pork ribs with salt and pepper and when the sausages have browned set them aside and then add the pork ribs to the pan. Repeat the browning process. Once the ribs are all golden brown remove them and leave them with the sausages. Add the onion, carrot and celery to the remaining fat in the pan, adding more oil if necessary, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes until fragrant, then add the wine. Use a spoon to scrape up any delicious golden bits at the bottom of the pan whilst reducing the wine by half. Meanwhile, empty the cans of tomatoes into a bowl and blitz with a hand blender until they are a thick liquid. Add this to the pan of veg followed by the rosemary, bay, parmesan rind if you are using, a big pinch of salt and pepper. Use 200ml of water to swill the tins out and add that too. Finally, carefully return the ribs and sausages to the pan. Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid and pop in the oven for 2 hours. The meat on the ribs should be tender but not quite falling off the bone- this is what we want! We want to serve it on the bone. Check the seasoning of the sauce and add more if necessary. Leave to cool and then store in the fridge if not using that day.

When you come to serve, make sure you start to heat up your sugo at least 30 minutes before you want to eat it, on a low heat is fine. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add a good amount of salt to it and taste it- it should be seasoned like a soup not like the sea ffs.

Before you cook your pasta, check the ribs and sausages are completely piping hot in the middle. Add the pasta to the boiling water, stirring well so it doesn’t stick. I don’t use timings when I cook pasta, I just continually taste it until I judge it ready, but if you are the kind of person who likes a timing, then I recommend shaving 2 minutes off the allotted time given on the bag. The next step will be to mix the cooked pasta with the sauce, so judge which pan is best/ big enough to do this. Remove the pork ribs and sausage from the sauce and set aside in a dish covered with a ladle or 2 of sauce and some foil. If you are mixing the pasta in the pan the sauce is already in, no need to do anything when the pasta is al dente, just use a spider or slotted spoon to transfer it directly into simmering sauce. If you need to use your pasta pan, then make sure to use a large mug or jug to reserve some pasta water before you drain your pasta. Mix the pasta and sauce together, adding pasta water if it needs loosening at all. You can also add a lovely glug of good olive oil here. Simmer the pasta and sauce together for a minute or so then take off the heat. To serve, I like to do 2-3 large platters of the pasta and sauce on the table topped with the ribs and sausages and finished with the cheese and some more oil. You may well want more bread for mopping.

MAKE AHEAD- 

• This sauce should DEFINITELY be made a day in advance at least for best results- the flavours will combine together much better when they have cooled together. It can be made up to 3 days before though, so if you are wfh in the week, bung it on in between meetings. 

• I SHOULDN’T EVEN HAVE TO SAY THIS BUT DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT COOKING THE PASTA UNTIL THE NIGHT. It will become mushy, dry and gross. If you are worried about walking away from your guests, no offence but I think they can live without you for a few minutes in between courses. 

SUBSTITUTIONS-

• You can definitely do all ribs or all sausages instead of both. Equally, lamb ribs or shanks would be lovely.

• If you can’t find gnocchetti sardi or cavatelli, go for rigatoni if you only have access to supermarket selections. Don’t buy the supermarket brand pasta though!!! De Cecco, Rummo or Garofalo are my preferred cheaper brands. If you have a deli you can shop at with more shapes, you could also try mezze maniche, ditalini, or even orecchiette.

PUDDING- MASCARPONE MOUSSE WITH VERMOUTH FRUITS

A word on puddings. Puddings are definitely not something I consider myself an expert in. But I did my stint in the pastry section and I loved how much I grew as a chef when I did - I learned so much about both precision and instinct. Since leaving restaurants and becoming a food stylist I have had the opportunity to learn from some amazing bakers and pastry chefs and have (as you often do in food styling) found myself making things I never would have dreamed of trying out. Puddings are SO FUN. And the pudding in a dinner party presents a unique challenge: it needs to look and taste scrumptious enough that people still want to consume it when they are four courses deep, but is also, ideally, already done by the time your guests arrive. I don’t know about you but I want to relax and enjoy the wine when I sit down to eat, so I am always looking for a pudding that I won’t have to worry about. I am loving my journey into dinner party puddings so far and my first one is something close to my heart- Mascarpone Mousse.

My Mascarpone Mousse is based on “the white bit of a tiramisu”. A light, fluffy airy mousse that hums with that amazingly creamy mascarpone.

The one I used to make in the pastry section I worked in was divinnnne but quite faffy for a home kitchen- thermometers, sugar syrups, stand mixers bla bla. So I have worked on a recipe that replicates it without all the annoying steps. 

For the Mousse 

500g mascarpone

397g condensed milk (1 can)

150ml double cream

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 egg whites

1 pink lady apple, thinly sliced

150g raspberries

80ml sweet red vermouth- I like Antica Formula and it’s delicious over ice too

25g caster sugar

6 Cocktail cherries with stems 

1 tbsp cocktail cherry syrup

In a large bowl use a spatula to break down the mascarpone until smooth, then add the condensed milk, vanilla and cream. Use electric hand beaters to whip the mix until it is smooth and thick, it will take about 1-2 minutes of beating. Clean and dry your beaters and then in a separate, very clean and dry bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Use a metal spoon to gently fold the egg whites into the mascarpone mix, working with one spoonful at a time, until the mix is light and smooth. Put in a tupperware or your chosen vessels and seal tightly, then refrigerate for 6 hours minimum or up to 36. 

Add the sliced apple, half the raspberries, sugar, vermouth and cherry syrup to a pan and bring to a very low simmer for 5 minutes until the raspberries have softened well. Then off the heat add the remaining raspberries, mix and leave to cool in a container in the fridge. Make sure to take the fruit out to come to temperature before you serve it, ideally 30-45 minutes before.

To serve you can either spoon the mousse onto plates or just top the mousse you have already set in bowls. If going onto a plate, warm a large metal spoon up in some hot water and then use that to scoop out the mousse for lovely clean lines. If you haven’t already, you can use your warm spoon to swirl the tops of the mousses in bowls for a pretty effect. Spoon the fruit around the mousse and top with the cherries.

MAKE AHEAD-

• The mousse definitely needs time to set in the fridge, I recommend 6 hours but it absolutely can be made the day before too. It takes about 20 minutes to make so it’s not a huge hassle to fit in around a lunch break or before you go to bed.

• The fruit can also sit for 24hrs and won't come to any harm!

SUBSTITUTIONS-

• If you find Vermouth too sour, use marsala or white port for a sweeter finish. If you can’t serve alcohol, then leave it out! Macerate the fruit in a spoonful of extra sugar and some lemon juice.

• The fruit here can absolutely be swapped to whatever you fancy or is in season. Pears and blackberries would be lovely, as would strawberries and peaches. 

TIMEPLAN

This first plan should help you see what you can get done in advance, so that for each course on the day you have at least 1, maybe 2 major parts of it taken care of. I appreciate that not everyone’s weeks are easily peppered with dinner party prep, but if you’re hosting after work or on a day where you can’t be in the kitchen, getting ahead is going to save your arse.

MISE-EN-PLACE

This is the fancy name we give to the food prep each section in the restaurant needs to do for their dishes. Hopefully breaking down each dish like this will help you feel organised. 

Use the hour before your guests arrive to organise your space too- I find it helpful to group ingredients by dish so it is all in the same place. Little ramekins are really useful for this.

STYLING- JUST FOR CLARITY, RECTANGULAR OR SQUARE PLATES ARE NEVER OK.

CROSTINI-  For snacks I like to keep things simple- these would look really nice on a few small plates dotted around the room or alternatively on one big plate or board. Get some fun napkins for people to eat them with, these are to be eaten standing, with drinks. The pink meat really pops on plates with blue in them.

WEDGE SALAD-  I think two large platters of this look beautiful on the table, and if you have anything that complements the colours of the salad (pinks, mauves, pale greens) then even better!

PORK SUGO AND GNOCCHETTI SARDI- As I said in the intro, big piles of pasta to dig into on the table are so fun. You can split into 2 or 3 if you have the plates for it. If not, I suggest piling the meat onto one big platter with a bit of sauce, and then keeping the pasta in its pan and bringing that to the table- for ease. Again blue is a great foil for the reds in this dish, but white (ROUND PLSSS) plates are also great.

MASCARPONE MOUSSE- Glass bowls are lovely, even champagne coupes or brandy glasses if you’re fancy, or three plates with big scoops of mousse on to share. NORMALISE SHARING SIZE PORTIONS FOR DESSERTS. 

FOR THE TABLE- 

If you can get hold of a bread basket and a chequered tea towel then you are laughing, I love that old school look. Plenty of red wine and I would go for low lighting with candles if you have space on your table.

Buy some campari sodas for yourself as a treat, and when you have finished them, keep the bottles, they make great little vases for tiny posies. Pop a few blooms in them for you table, yellow feels like the right colour here, so maybe some mimosa.

So, that’s it!! My first Dinner Party with you all, such a glorious, fun menu and loads of ways to make it easier on yourselves too. I fully expect to see pictures of very drunk, very full people flooding my instagram DM’s- tag me bitches!!