Make-Ahead Sides for a Pizza Party That Travel Well

These make-ahead pizza party sides are all finished before the first pizza goes in, so the oven stays free and nothing needs your attention once people arrive.

Keep a couple of wide-mouth glass jars for the pickled things, and a dressing shaker so the salads get dressed at the table rather than in the car.

1. Whipped Ricotta with Hot Honey

Whole milk ricotta beaten until it is smooth, spread in a shallow bowl, and covered in hot honey and chili flakes.

Whip it the day before but hold the honey until serving, because it thins out and runs to the bottom overnight.

Take it out of the fridge twenty minutes early, since cold ricotta is stiff and tastes flat.

2. Giardiniera

Pizza is rich and salty, and a jar of sharp pickled vegetables next to it does more than any salad.

Cauliflower, carrot, celery, and peppers in a vinegar brine, and it wants at least two days before anyone eats it.

Make it a week out and it only improves, which makes it the earliest thing you can tick off the list.

Pack it in quart-size glass jars with clamp lids and it travels without refrigeration.

Drain it into a bowl before it goes on the table, or people fish through brine with a fork.

3. Marinated Mushrooms

Where the giardiniera is sharp, these are soft and garlicky, and the two of them side by side cover most of what a rich table needs.

Blanch the mushrooms first so they stop absorbing oil, then let them sit in olive oil, garlic, and parsley overnight.

The oil goes solid and cloudy in a cold cooler, so pull the jar out well before you serve it.

4. Italian Sub Chopped Salad

A green salad at a pizza party usually goes untouched, and this one does not, because it has salami and provolone in it.

Chop everything the night before and keep the lettuce in its own container, dry, with the rest layered on top of it.

Dress it at the table and not a minute earlier, since romaine under vinaigrette collapses in about fifteen minutes.

Pepperoncini and their brine are what make it taste like the sandwich rather than a plain salad.

5. Arancini

This is the ambitious one, and it is also the one people remember.

Make the risotto two days ahead, because cold, firm, day-old rice is the only kind that will hold a ball together.

Roll and bread them the day before, then fry them the morning of and let them come down to room temperature.

They are meant to be eaten warm or cool rather than hot, so an hour sitting in a container does them no harm.

A deep fry thermometer matters here more than usual, since oil that runs cool gives you greasy rice balls.

6. Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuff them the day before, keep them raw and covered, and bake them off whenever the oven is free.

Salt the caps and drain them upside down for half an hour first, because mushrooms release a surprising amount of water into the filling.

These are the one thing here that wants to be warm, so they are the last thing in and the first thing out.

Panko on top rather than fresh breadcrumbs, since it stays crisp instead of going pasty.

7. Caesar Salad

Caesar is the salad people actually eat next to pizza, and it falls apart faster than any other one here.

Wash and dry the romaine two days out and store it wrapped in a towel in a bag, where it gets crisper rather than softer.

Dressing, croutons, and leaves travel in three separate containers and meet in a large wooden salad bowl at the last second.

Shave the parmesan rather than grating it, because shavings stay distinct instead of dissolving into the dressing.

8. Roasted Red Pepper and White Bean Dip

Jarred roasted peppers and canned beans, blended, which makes this the cheapest thing on the list by a wide margin.

It holds for four or five days in the fridge and it does not separate, unlike anything built on yogurt or sour cream.

Thin it with a spoonful of the pepper jar liquid rather than water so it does not lose flavor as it loosens.

9. Roasted Broccolini with Chili and Lemon

Roasted vegetables are usually the sad tray at a party, and broccolini avoids that because it is good cold.

Roast it hot enough to char the tips, which is where all of the flavor is.

Add the lemon after it comes out of the oven, since acid on a hot tray steams the vegetables and dulls the color.

Spread it out in one layer on the tray, because a crowded pan gives you olive-green broccolini instead of charred.

Notes on What to Make When

The giardiniera goes first, a week out, since it is the only thing that needs that long to be worth eating.

Two days before, do the risotto for the arancini and wash the romaine.

The day before covers most of it, so the focaccia dough, the marinated mushrooms, the tomatoes, the ricotta, the dip, and the chopped vegetables all happen then.

The morning of leaves the focaccia, the knots, the arancini frying, and the broccolini.

That leaves the actual party with nothing but stuffed mushrooms in the oven and three things to dress at the table.

Tips for Serving Sides at a Pizza Night

Put the sharp things at both ends of the table, because they are what people go back to between slices.

Anything dressed or drizzled should be finished where people can see it, since a salad tossed in the kitchen looks like it has been sitting.

Room temperature is not a compromise here, and most of these are worse straight out of a cooler than they are after twenty minutes on the table.

Count on people eating less side than you expect, because pizza is filling and the sides are competing with it rather than completing a plate.

For a bigger spread, picnic finger food ideas for a crowd covers the things you eat standing up, camping side dishes for a crowd has the salads and beans, and easy summer meals for a crowd is what to cook when pizza is not the plan.