At the beach I still like to have Family Dinner on Sunday especially now that we can all be together.
On Sundays, at home, we have Family Dinner and whoever is available to join us will come over later in the afternoon. We all have busy schedules so this works well for us. Growing up and in our early marriage years Sunday dinner was always promptly at 1:00pm at my in-laws and 6:00pm with my family. A little hectic but we needed to be respectful to both our parents. At the beach I still like to have Family Dinner on Sunday especially now that we can all be together.
So, after years of bringing pots of sauce with meatballs, and boxes of spaghetti to cook, in a large pot I had to lug along, too, grated cheese, etc., I developed a much more convenient recipe which works well. And everyone, especially me, is happy because we are having Family Dinner……not at 1:00pm but somewhere closer to our regular dinner time after a full day at the beach.
Last year I came up with this Sunday Beach Recipe. All things I can get done in advance. During the week prior to leaving, I made the sauce but instead of regular size meatballs I made them the size of ping pong balls or a bit smaller.
On Friday, I made a few very large pasta casseroles and imbedded the meatballs throughout the layers of pasta and cheese, ricotta, and shredded mozzarella. Almost like a Lasagna. Topped the casseroles with sauce and packed them well first with saran, then foil and then refrigerated them. Placed them in the cooler just before leaving for the beach very early Saturday morning, with a few containers of extra sauce and grated cheese and all was ready for our Sunday night traditional dinner. It was a success, so on the list to do again each year.
BUON MANGIATA!
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