When my family gets together, we try to make new traditions that we all love. One of them is creating a pasta bar with wine tasting. We had planned to make from scratch 3 different pasta sauces: white, red marinara, and pesto. Along with 3 different pastas (not from scratch), home-made mozzarella meatballs, grilled chicken, broccoli, and fresh French bread from the bread-maker. Ambitious, you say?
As you can see we had our counter full of supplies. My brother-in-law, Rob, even roasted pine nuts in preparation for the pesto sauce.
Here’s Rob hard at work mincing up onions. And my sister Val starting the Marinara sauce.
Another aspect of our evening was the wine tasting we had planned. Since I had recently photographed the Riedel Glassware wine tasting event, I became even more of a wine glass snob after learning so much about the ‘right’ wine glass for each varietal. I had purchased the tasting sets so that I could use them in my own home. So, I replicated Mr. Max Riedel’s seminar and we tasted a Riesling, a Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir, and a Cabernet.
As dinner time approached, we sauteed garlic with mushrooms.
And Natalie brought all the fixings for a fabulous salad.
I loved the color of this salad.
While us girls were busy with the final touches, the guys lounged in the family room as I gave instructions on the wine tasting. I even supplied everyone with a plastic cup, just as in the Riedel tasting seminar.
Mr. Sock Monkey wanted to have a sip of the Cabernet.
Here are the final pasta sauces. They looked and smelled so good.
The buffet bar was fully set and it was time to eat.
No Starr family event could ever be complete without a visit from the ‘bird’. Way to go Cory!
At the very end of the night, we had piles of dishes and luckily with all the help, we had most of it cleaned up before everyone left for the night.
There you have it folks. An evening of exploring pasta and wine with family. I’m all about creating traditions, and hope we have many more of these ahead.
Share your traditions with me in the comment section below, and don’t forget to GRAB my FREE Manifesto Guide for everyday inspiration.
I just love this idea. The sauces and pasta could be customized to your guests. We often have gluten-free and other dietary restrictions amongst our guests and this would be easy to do with this concept. We’ll have to try it next time we have a get together. Thanks!
We need to do this again! It was such a fun & relaxing night with family!