When Cooking For A Crowd, Don’t Shun A Few Shortcuts

How do you serve 60 for dinner? You cheat. That, says Patti Pukatch, is her secret.

“When I have that many people to feed, I don’t feel the need personally to make everything from scratch,” says the Bethesda, Md., mother of two teenagers.

So when she’s asked by her children’s school to put on a chili dinner for 60, or her daughter’s student-exchange program needs a feast for 125, some things are made from scratch, and some things get a little help from commercial products.

“A great bottled Caesar dressing for the steamed green beans, frozen tortellini for the pasta salad, a bottled marinade for the baked chicken …” All of these are quick tricks that Pukatch uses to whip together everything - from dinner for her son’s soccer team to a black-tie fund-raiser.

Pukatch admits she is living proof of the adage, “When you want something done, ask a busy person.”

Highly organized - “with two teenagers on the go, you have to be” - she is the one who always cheerfully agrees to plan, shop and cook when there’s a large meal looming.

“Food is how you get people together to do things,” she says. (A Pukatch tip: If you want everyone to attend an important meeting, offer to serve them dinner beforehand.)

Last spring, she helped her children’s school celebrate its 50th anniversary with a chili dinner. The menu featured three kinds of chili - vegetarian, chicken and Texas red - plus a big tossed salad, bread and dessert.

“The vegetarian and the chicken chilis I made from recipes. The red chili I made from a mix because it was easier, and it’s a good mix,” she adds.

The dinner was scheduled for a Sunday, and Pukatch’s game plan was typical: “A week before, I plan the menu and make a shopping list. On Thursday, I spend half a day shopping for ingredients. On Friday, I do all the cooking.”

By the Sunday of the school dinner, she was rested, and the chili had improved from almost two days in the refrigerator.

For an international dinner for a student-exchange program, she made big pans of Moroccan baked chicken and couscous with vegetables. An Asian buffet featured pasta salad with hoisin sauce and chicken breasts marinated in bottled teriyaki sauce and then baked. When her husband coached her son’s soccer team a few years ago, she invited 15 pre-adolescents over for huge platters of spaghetti in her dining room.

“It’s something anybody could do, but people are afraid to cook,” Pukatch says. “They’re afraid of screwing up. I say, the most important thing is make people comfortable. If the food comes out horrible, order pizza and enjoy the party anyway.”

She has become particularly good at finding quality ingredients in bulk at discount stores.

“A lot of the organizations I’m cooking for have limited budgets,” she explains, so she counts on the bulk stores for those enormous bags of frozen tortellini, the oversize bottles of dressing and the larger cuts of meat.

Pukatch has other tricks she is happy to pass along:

Nervous about entertaining? Buy dessert. Buy bread. Buy salad mix. That leaves only the entree for you to worry about.

Don’t worry about the entree. Keep it simple and garnish it beautifully - orange slices or greens or edible flowers. It will look spectacular, and people will love it.

Try for as many dishes as possible that can be served at room temperature. One of her favorite recipes is for skinless, boneless chicken breasts rolled up with commercially prepared pesto sauce and sun-dried tomatoes. Sliced, the chicken roll-ups are colorful and can be served cold or hot.

If you’re unsure of your guests’ tastes, make two entrees, one plain, one exotic - something for everyone.

People get nervous and start cooking too far in advance, and the meal ends up overcooked. Or they don’t know when to call a halt to the cocktail hour, and a good meal ends up overcooked and dry. Plan when you want everyone to eat and stick to your plan.

When cooking for a group, get your friends to help with the prep work. They can keep you company, and the work goes faster.

Beg, borrow or buy big pots and pans. Cooking in five small pots and then having to dump all the batches together is a lot of work. Big, disposable roasting pans are a good alternative.

Pukatch admits that with their busy after-school schedules, her children, a son, 16, and a daughter, 13, rarely are home long enough for a homecooked meal.

“But when I moan and complain that no one’s ever home for dinner, my friends remind me that instead of cooking five small dinners a week, I’m cooking one huge one a week for 50. And I get a lot more kudos that way,” she adds with a laugh.

Tortellini Salad

When cooking for a big group, Pukatch chooses cheese-filled tortellini so the pasta dish can serve as a main course for vegetarians.

2/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup wine vinegar

Pinch salt

3 pounds frozen cheese tortellini

4 to 5 large garlic cloves, minced

15 ounces black olives, coarsely chopped

30 ounces (2 cans) artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped

8 ounces sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped

1 tablespoon herbes de Provence

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Whisk together the oil and vinegar. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the tortellini and cook until just done. Drain and place in a large bowl. Stir in the oil and vinegar mixture, and refrigerate to cool.

When it’s completely cooled, stir in the garlic, olives, artichoke hearts, tomatoes and herbes de Provence. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Garnish with Parmesan cheese before serving.

Yield: 28 side-dish servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 202 calories, 12 grams fat (53 percent fat calories), 20 grams carbohydrate, 11 milligrams cholesterol, 292 milligorams sodium, 7 grams protein.

Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

This recipe was given to Pukatch by her friend Judy Starrels, a caterer.

10 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, pounded thin

2 tablespoons prepared pesto

10 large sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

Fresh parsley or basil for garnish

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lay out chicken breasts, top-side down, and spread each with about 1/2 teaspoon of pesto. At the fatter end of each, place 1 sun-dried tomato. Roll the chicken breast lengthwise around the tomato and continue rolling until you have a “jelly roll.” Secure each seam with toothpicks or a small skewer and place, seam-side down, in a roasting pan.

Sprinkle the roll-ups with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until done. Remove from the oven; let sit for 5 minutes.

Slice each chicken roll-up into 4 or 5 slices. Arrange on a platter and garnish with fresh parsley or basil. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Yield: 10 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 144 calories, 6 grams fat (38 percent fat calories), 1 gram carbohydrate, 55 milligrams cholesterol, 172 milligrams sodium, 20 grams protein.