How to Host Without Doing Everything: Italian Night

A delegated dinner party, Edible Week style.

Dinner partying… Italian style.

We all want to host more dinners, and honestly, we should. Sitting around a table with friends is really good for us. But planning a menu, shopping, cooking, setting up, and then cleaning up… it’s a lot. It feels too daunting, and so more often than not, we just… don’t.

Here’s the thing, though, you don’t actually have to do it all yourself. Think about it, the first thing people ask when you invite them over is, “What can I bring?” And nine times out of ten, we say “Just wine!”

This is your reminder that you can say something else. This guide is your permission slip to delegate. It’s a thoughtful template for a shared meal: guests bring a few make-ahead dishes, you focus on the main, the wine and the vibe.

Because people want to contribute, they just need a little direction.

A delicious salad, that I didn’t have to make.

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We started doing this with our neighbors after our second baby was born. Before that, we were usually the ones hosting, big, festive dinners with friends and casual neighborhood get-togethers. We loved it. But with a baby and a toddler, pulling off those kinds of meals suddenly felt a lot harder. There were plenty of nights when the solution was ordering takeout to share, which, to be honest, is still a very good hack.

Wine glasses, cheese for grating, a little floral moment, and we are ready.

But at some point we started leaning into potluck-style dinners with more intentional delegations. The point was really about getting together regularly for a shared meal, without anyone carrying the full burden of cooking, cleaning, and hosting.

And yes, I know this sounds like just… a potluck. But here’s the difference: simply telling someone “bring a salad” or “bring dessert” can still leave friends scratching their heads or stressing about what to make. So I upped the ante in our friend group. Now I send a group text and start passing out jobs.

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This Edition: Italian Night 🇮🇹

This menu isn’t meant to be a regionally accurate snapshot of Italian cooking. It’s more of a mix, familiar classics from across Italy, with a few Italian-American favorites thrown in. The goal here is crowd-pleasing comfort, not strict authenticity.

It’s also designed to be easy to divide among friends. Assign dishes with your intuition, or let guests claim whatever feels most natural to them. Either way, everyone gets to contribute, and the table fills up beautifully.

You can make your own Pomodoro, or just buy a bottle and spruce it up…

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The Menu

Choose what works for your crowd. Each dish has two options: one more ambitious, one a little easier.

👩‍🍳 HOST (That’s you) - The Main
Pick one:

• Grilled Tuscan-style steak

  or

• Lemony chicken under a brick

🍸 GUEST 1 - Antipasti

• Fig + lemon ricotta crostini
  or

• Cheese board with marinated olives + fancy nuts

🥗 GUEST 2 - Big Salad

• Tri-colore salad (arugula, radicchio, endive)
  or

• Caprese with burrata upgrade

🍝 GUEST 3 - Pasta Course

• Simple summer pomodoro pasta
  (Homemade or your favorite jarred sauce over bucatini with Parm)

🥕 GUEST 4 - Veggie Side

• Roasted carrots with salsa verde
  or

• Eggplant caponata (sweet, tangy, and great at room temp)

🍨 GUEST 5 - Dessert

• Tiramisu in a pan for easy serving
  or

• Gelato + cold brew for DIY affogatos

🍷 GUEST 6 - Cocktails
One person shouldn’t have to cover the wine bill, either take this on as the host, or spread it among a few guests.

If you’ve got a mixologist friend, ask them to bring Negroni ingredients (or go lighter with a Sbagliato or Americano).

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Tuscan style steak = very rare.

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The Evening Flow

Everyone’s in charge of prepping and serving their own dish, which means we’ll all take turns stepping away from the table or checking the oven.

1. Antipasti

• When: Put this out as guests arrive.

• Prep: Fully assembled ahead (cheese, olives, marinated veg, crostini). Bruschetta can be topped quickly right before serving.

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2. Insalata (Salad)

• When: Served just before sitting down.

• Prep: Ingredients prepped earlier. Tossed/assembled and dressed last minute while guests snack.

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3. Primo (Pasta)

• When: After salad.

• Prep: Sauce can be made fully ahead and kept warm. Pasta water should already be boiling. Cook pasta when guests are seated with salad, then quickly toss with sauce and finish with pasta water.

• Shortcut: You can par-cook pasta a few hours ahead (about 2 minutes shy of done), toss in oil, and reheat in boiling water for 1–2 minutes just before serving. This keeps you at the table more.

• At table: You’ll need to duck into the kitchen briefly, but it’s a quick “stir and serve.”

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4. Secondo + Contorni (Main + Veggies)

• When: After pasta.

• Prep:

  • If grilled: Meat/seafood should be cooking while pasta is served, with someone tending the grill. It comes off hot and fresh just as pasta plates are cleared.

  • If oven-roasted: Time it so the meat finishes during the pasta course. Someone ducks in to pull it ~10 minutes before serving, so it rests while plates are cleared. Chicken can be served warm instead of hot for convenience.

  • Veg sides can easily be made ahead.

• At table: Family-style platters arrive together with bread (if serving).

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5. Dolce (Dessert)

• When: After the main course and a pause.

• Prep: Fully ready ahead and stored in the fridge/freezer.

• At table: Serve everyone at the table. (Default to small paper plates here if the dishes are stressing you out.)

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6. Digestivo (After-Dinner Drinks)

• When: Final chapter.

• Prep: Bottles/glasses ready ahead (limoncello, amaro or cocktails).

• At table: Pass glasses and bottles around for guest to serve themselves, a slow wind-down to the night.

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Drink

You don’t need to overthink wine here, Italian food is wonderfully forgiving. A few well-chosen bottles will cover the spread. I go into more specific pairings in the recipe PDF’s, but here are some easy general ideas…

We started with a limoncello spritz but a bottle of Prosecco or Franciacorta is always welcome. Bubbles at the start of the night make everything feel festive.

• If you’re serving chicken: A crisp white (Pinot Grigio, Verdicchio, or Vermentino) or a lighter red (Chianti Classico or Barbera) will shine. Both have the freshness to keep things lively.

• If you’re serving steak: Reach for something with a little more depth, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Nebbiolo, or even a Sangiovese-based Brunello if you’re feeling celebratory.

If you want to keep it NA: Stay Italian with spritz-inspired: blood orange soda topped with sparkling water and a rosemary sprig. Simple, pretty, and just as fun to sip.

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Smaller Group Option

Hosting 6 or fewer? Skip the pasta and veg courses and keep the rest.
A menu of:

• Antipasti

• Salad

• Main

• Dessert

• After-dinner drinks

That’s more than enough, and still totally fun and delicious.

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The Table

Set the tone with low lights, a long table, candles (battery-powered if you’re outside), a simple tablecloth or even butcher paper, and something green or floral down the center.

I love using vintage plates, and recently I scored a full set of china, 32 matching pieces with a delicate floral border, at my local thrift shop for $60. They’ll be with me for years. If you go this route, just do a quick lead test or look up the maker’s mark to be sure the set is from after 1978 when lead was banned in foodware.

Other simple ideas: tie a sprig of rosemary around each napkin, make handwritten place cards, or skip the florals and just snip a few branches from the neighborhood. It doesn’t need to be elaborate, just a few intentional touches make the night feel special. And if you’ve got a friend with a good eye, ask them to come early and help set the table.

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Soundtrack

I made you a a playlist.

Maybe it’s your vibe, maybe you’d rather something with the vintage feel of a Fellini dinner scene. In that case, pull up Piero Piccioni Radio on Spotify, all gorgeous Italian soundtracks, bossa nova, and lounge-y gems.

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I hope you give this a try. Asking people to pitch in can feel awkward at first, but honestly, if you’re covering the main pieces, guests are usually thrilled to be part of it. Someone has to take the lead to make dinner parties happen, and that person can be you.

That’s the spirit behind The Edible Week: simple plans that make good food and good gatherings actually doable. If you like what we’re building here, please share it with a friend (maybe at your next dinner party). 🥂

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If you want How to Host Without Doing Everything to become a series, reply or comment with the theme you want next:

🥖 French countryside picnic?
🍣 Japanese izakaya night?
🌽 Summer farmer’s market feast?

Let’s have some parties.

—Miranda