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Making Pasta For a Crowd? (Here's the Perfect Amount to Buy)
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Apr 25, 2024
If you're hosting a party, event, or just have a big family, you'll want to know exactly how much pasta to make. I'll tell you how much you need to buy and make for 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 people so none goes to waste. Check out our article- https://cookforfolks.com/making-pasta-for-a-large-group-exactly-how-much-to-buy/
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0:00
So you're having a big party or some sort of event
0:03
or you just have a really big family and you want to serve some pasta
0:07
but you need to know how much you actually need to buy so you don't waste a bunch of pasta
0:11
or get too little, even worse. So in general, adults eat about two ounces of dry pasta
0:18
before you cook it, and children eat about one ounce of dry pasta
0:23
Now, of course, this can change depending on what you're serving with the pasta
0:28
whether the pasta is your main dish or it's a side, and also depending on what kind of people
0:34
you're serving the pasta to. So if you're serving it to a bunch of hungry teenagers
0:40
who just came in from playing soccer, they might need a little bit more pasta
0:44
than the general one ounce for kids. Now, if you're serving it to people like little, little kids
0:51
then they might even need less than that one ounce. I wanted to do this today
0:56
because I wanted to show you actually exactly how much pasta you're gonna need in the dry form
1:03
So I got a couple different kinds. I got this shell pasta
1:07
and then I also got some spaghetti, and I got all of my pasta from Winco
1:13
This is a chain of grocery stores, mainly in the West, I believe
1:17
but let me know if it is somewhere in your city, maybe in the Midwest or the East Coast
1:23
But in my opinion, it's one of the best places to get bulk items
1:27
like dry pasta, rice, really everything under the sun. I'm sure you can get it a good deal at Costco
1:32
but it's super convenient just to run in there. So basically, for the pasta
1:38
I paid 2.40 per pound and a total of 4.09 for the pasta shells
1:46
And then for the spaghetti, I paid 4.70 a pound, 4.70 a pound, which ended up being 2.18
1:54
for all the spaghetti, because I got much less spaghetti than the shell pasta. So that's not a whole lot
1:59
a little over $6 for all this pasta. It's a really good option to feed a large group
2:03
Anyway, let's get to the main point, which is I'll show you exactly how much pasta
2:10
Whoopsie, dropped a little bit. I'll show you exactly how much pasta you're going to need
2:14
depending on how many people you're having. Okay, so I got some bowls here of various sizes
2:20
and I got my trusty-dusty food scale. I'm gonna put it to ounces
2:25
so I can measure actually how much the pasta weighs. So we're gonna start with 10 people
2:31
Of course, you can divide by two and get five people or vice versa
2:36
By the way, I have an entire article where you can read exactly how much pasta you need
2:41
We have a whole chart for you, and you can find the link to that article right below
2:46
So let's get started with the 10 people. So you're gonna need about 20 ounces of pasta
2:54
So let's see if the pasta will fit in this smaller bowl first
2:58
I'm gonna put that to zero. There we go. 20 ounces. We might need a bigger bowl
3:10
I think we're gonna need a bigger bowl. Okay, it's already almost filling up. Oh, oopsie
3:16
We're almost filled up with that bowl, so we're gonna switch it over to a much bigger bowl
3:22
So we're now at eight ounces, and we need 20, so ooh, this is dangerous
3:41
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Okay, so we're gonna need some bigger bowls eventually
3:47
but this is what 20 ounces of dry pasta looks like. That's gonna be the dry pasta before you cook it
3:54
and that's gonna be for 10 people. That is what it looks like
3:59
So quite a bit of pasta there, but we're gonna keep going, and hopefully I can find some bigger bowls to fit this in
4:05
Okay, my dog is currently eating the dry pasta up the floor, so I should probably sweep that up
4:10
and I will be right back. Whew, okay, now the floor is all cleaned up
4:23
So let's do how much pasta we need for 20 people, which is double the amount we just did
4:28
which is about 40 ounces. So I'm gonna get this bigger bowl
4:34
20 ounces. 20 ounces, and then we're gonna get 40 ounces in this bowl
4:52
Okay. It's getting close to filling this bowl up, so I might have to get creative
5:02
and maybe find like a giant pot to put the bigger amounts of pasta in
5:07
Alrighty, now I got this huge stock pot, so I'm gonna put this on the scale
5:15
and hopefully I can see the scale underneath here. Okay. What I'm gonna do is just measure another 40 ounces in here
5:26
and then I'll pour it back into the stock pot. Whew. Whew
5:36
So this is gonna be for 40 people, and this is 80 ounces of pasta
5:42
I had to get this stock pot to have it be able to fit
5:45
So that is quite a bit of pasta, as you can see there
5:50
Yeah, but still, very, very cost-effective. Doesn't cost that much if you get it in bulk
5:56
So again, that's for 40 people, and that's 80 ounces of pasta
6:01
So now, for 50 people, we're going to need 100 ounces of pasta
6:07
So I'm just gonna measure 20 more ounces in here and then add it to that other bowl
6:16
All right, so I got a little creative and I added some spaghetti to the shelled pasta
6:21
but you get it. I mean, it's all the same. Dry pasta is dry pasta
6:26
So that is the amount that you need for 50 people. That is 100 ounces of pasta
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And as you can imagine, that will only grow once you start cooking it
6:38
It's going to absorb the water and get bigger. So you're gonna have to have a really big pot
6:44
to cook all of that pasta. So if you wanna really stretch your pasta
6:49
there's some things that you can do to make it go even further for your guests
6:54
So of course, one of the ones that we all know is adding meat to your pasta
6:59
possibly adding it to some tomato sauce to make like a spaghetti type sauce
7:04
or you can add some sort of side dish to make the plate a little bit more full
7:09
So you could add some sort of greens like a salad. You could add like a roll or a breadstick
7:17
Just keep in mind, that's a lot more carbs to add to the carbs
7:21
which is totally okay, but you are gonna want to add some sort of protein
7:25
or fat in both to make it a more complete meal. And of course, to keep everyone full longer
7:32
Oh, and yeah, another one is roasted vegetables. So if you were having like a spaghetti
7:36
you could add onions, peppers, olives, all of that, or just carrots, broccoli, any of that
7:44
Vegetables go really well with pasta, and it makes for a complete meal, of course
7:50
Now to make sure that everybody is getting the right portion, you should serve the pasta yourself and pre-plate it
7:58
Rather than having some sort of serve yourself or like passing the bowl around
8:03
and letting people take various amounts, then you're gonna be totally off
8:07
And if you got like the right amount for the amount of people you are
8:11
some people are gonna take way, way more, and then that's not gonna leave enough pasta
8:16
for some other people. So pre-portion it out, and even use maybe some smaller plates
8:22
So it looks like the plate is really filled up, and that way you're gonna make sure
8:27
that everyone at your party or your event or family dinner is happy
8:32
and their bellies are gonna get nice and full, and it's gonna be a success
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By the way, if you are gluten-free, there were some gluten-free options at WinCo
8:43
They just were a little bit more expensive, and so I chose for the sake of this video
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to just get the regular, but of course that's a concern for a lot of people
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and myself included. My family will be eating this, but I will not
8:57
So trust me, it will not go to waste
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