Bocce is a widely beloved game and not only in official competitions. It’s such a simple and fun game to make the focus of a party. Part of hosting people over is keeping their stomachs full with some fun and delicious bocce ball food.
What is bocce ball food? It’s simply food that you can serve while you play bocce. It can also be themed food that even looks like a bocce ball!
While your guests are playing rounds of bocce, you can serve the classic party salsa and tortilla chips, burgers and chips or try something unique like bacon-wrapped pineapples. Or try an Italian theme.
It goes without saying that you can serve any kind of food to your friends, family, and guests. These are just a few favorites and easy recipes to get the party going, including a fun recipe called cheesy meatball bombs for bocce balls on a plate.
Below, we’ll go over each of these dishes and a quick recipe on how you can make them. We’ll also give suggestions on drinks and beverage options you can serve.
Bocce Ball: A Fun Backyard Party
Bocce is a widely beloved game that is in the boules category, often related to other games like lawn bowling and pétanque.
Bocce is one of the world’s oldest games and the third most played game. One of the things that make bocce a widely-loved game by millions worldwide is its adaptability and flexibility.
While there are official rules and guidelines on court layouts and game rules used for official games and tournaments, leisure players can easily customize the rules to their liking. When one is playing for fun and leisure, they don’t need to twist their heads following the official rules.
Moreover, bocce is a game that anyone can play. Men, women, adults, and children. Players don’t need extreme athletic abilities to join in on the fun. This makes bocce a popular game and entertainment for backyard parties, especially if you have space.
Bocce Ball Food: Food to Serve While Playing Bocce
If you’re hosting a bocce party right in your backyard, consider these food staples you can serve your guests:
- Salsa and Tortilla Chips
A backyard party can never go wrong with a classic serving of salsa and tortilla chips.
For a classic salsa, you need these ingredients:
- Fresh tomatoes
- Canned tomatoes
- Cilantro
- Jalapeno
- Red onion
- Garlic
- Lime
- Salt, pepper, and sugar
- First, chop up all the ingredients.
- Then, add everything into a food processor or a blender. Add the lime juice and spices as well.
- Turn on the food processor or blender in quick bursts until everything is finely chopped.
If you don’t have either a food processor or blender readily available, finely chop all the ingredients and stir everything well together in a bowl instead.
Serve your homemade salsa with tortilla chips.
- Simple Tossed Salad
Every party needs a simple tossed salad. The good thing about tossed salad is that you can add or remove ingredients as you prefer. But for a simple recipe, you would be needing the following:
- Lettuce or greens
- Tomatoes
- Cucumbers
- Carrots
- Green, red, or white onions
- Olives
- Vinegar and olive oil
- Sugar or honey
- Salt and pepper
Then, here’s what you do to make the salad:
- To start, place your salad greens in a salad bowl, then top with the rest of the cut or shredded ingredients.
- For the dressing, put vinegar, olive oil, and sugar or honey in a container with a lid. Cover the top and shake until everything is mixed well.
- Pour the dressing over the salad. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Toss the salad to incorporate everything together.
- Bacon-Wrapped Pineapple
Something bite-sized like this bacon-wrapped pineapple appetizer is a great way to keep your guests mingling and their stomachs full.
It’s a very simple dish and won’t complicate things for you at all.
Simply wrap the pineapple with strips of bacon. Use a toothpick to secure the bacon around the pineapple. This also serves as an easier way for guests to pick them up later. Then, broil them on all sides until they’re crispy.
- Potato Salad
For a traditional and old-fashioned potato salad, prepare these ingredients:
- Potatoes
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Celery
- Onion
- Sweet pickle relish
- Mayonnaise
- Mustard
- Salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and minced herbs
To start making your potato salad:
- Boil salted water in a large pot. Once it’s boiling, add the potatoes and cook for about 15 minutes, until they’re tender but still firm.
- Drain the potatoes. Set aside and let them cool. Then, peel and chop them.
- Combine the potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, celery, onion, relish, mayonnaise, and mustard in a bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Mix everything well together.
- Refrigerate the salad until chilled and take it out to serve.
- BBQ Chicken Nachos
Another easy and quick dish you can prepare for your bocce ball party is nachos. Prepare these ingredients:
- Tortilla chips
- Barbeque sauce
- Cooked chicken, chopped bite-size
- Shredded cheese
- Warm the barbeque sauce in a saucepan. Then, add the chopped chicken. Stir until fully coated.
- On a large baking sheet, spread out the tortilla chips. Top them with the barbeque sauce and chicken mix.
- Sprinkle a generous amount of cheese on top.
- Bake in the oven for about five munites, or until the cheese is melted.
- Steak and Cheese Quesadilla
To make your quesadilla, get these ingredients ready:
- Flour tortilla
- Beef, or other choice of meat
- Cheese
- Red and green peppers
- Onion
- Mushroom
- Garlic, salt, and pepper
- Cook your choice of meat in a large skillet. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the meat from the skillet once cooked.
- Cut the peppers, onions, and mushrooms into small cubes. Add the cubed vegetables into the same skillet as before and cook until tender.
- Then, add minced garlic and the meat back in.
- To assemble, spread mayonnaise on one side of the tortillas.
- Add the meat mixture to half of the tortilla. Top off with cheese and then close the tortilla.
- On a clean non-stick pan, cook the tortillas, flipping them as they cook. Cook them until the cheese melts.
- Pinwheel Sandwiches
Pinwheel sandwiches are simple finger foods that will get your guests to eat, mingle, and play.
You would need these ingredients:
- Mayonnaise
- Ranch
- Sliced cheese
- Flour tortillas
- Sliced ham
- Sliced turkey breast
- Lettuce
- Get a small bowl and mix the mayonnaise and ranch seasoning together.
- Then, get the tortilla and lay it flat on a clean surface.
- Spread one tablespoon of the sauce mixture on each tortilla.
- On the bottom of the tortilla, place two to three slices of cheese and the meats on the top portion, with your greens on top of the meats.
- Tightly roll the tortilla up.
- Slice them into rounds and arrange them on a platter to serve.
- Homemade Burgers
Nothing beats a good ‘ol burger when it comes to backyard parties.
Prep these ingredients to serve your own burgers:
- Ground beef
- Fine dry bread crumbs
- Egg
- Salt and pepper
- Burger buns
- In a bowl, mix the egg, salt, and pepper together.
- Then, add the ground beef and bread crumbs. Mix until fully incorporated.
- With the ground beef mix, form the patties, each about 3/4 inches thick.
- Grill and cook the patties up to your desired doneness.
- Get your burger buns and place the cooked patty on one side.
- Add additional preferred ingredients. Lettuce, tomatoes, onion, cheese – go crazy – and then serve.
Food Shaped Like Bocce Ball: Cheesy Meatball Bombs
If you want to take your bocce ball party food to the next level, you can serve food that’s shaped just like a bocce ball.
These cheesy meatball bombs, fondly called bocce balls, are round homemade hot pockets perfect for keeping your bocce ball party guests full and having fun. It’s mozzarella tucked inside meatballs and then wrapped inside a pizza crust.
For this recipe, you would need these ingredients:
- Homemade meatballs
- Pizza dough
- Chunks of mozzarella cheese
- Egg
- Water
And here’s what you do to start cooking:
- Once you have your meatball mixture done and ready, scoop up a portion of it into one hand and fold a chunk of mozzarella cheese into the center.
- Roll the meatball mix with the cheese inside to make it ball-shaped.
- For the pizza crust wrap, roll out your pick of pizza dough into a rectangle.
- Cut out the pizza dough into eight parts.
- Wrap the cut-out dough around the meatball. Seal the edges.
- On a lined baking sheet, place the bocce balls, with the edges or seams facing down.
- Make an egg wash with one egg and one tablespoon of water.
- Then brush the egg wash over each ball.
- Pop it inside the oven and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes until the top appears golden brown.
- Serve warm with your choice of dip like marinara sauce.
Bocce Ball Food: Drinks and Beverages
For the drinks and beverages at your party, you can go for alcoholic drinks, non-alcoholic drinks, or both.
For alcoholic drinks, you can serve wines, light beers, and even your own cocktail concoctions.
A few non-alcoholic drink options could include lemonade, punch, and even slushies.
Conclusion
A game of bocce is a great way to invite friends and family over for some good, quality time. But part of hosting people over at your house is keeping their stomachs full so they can play, talk, and mingle.
As the party host, you can serve any food you and your guests prefer for a day of bocce games. But some great suggestions include salsa and tortilla chips, tossed salad, bacon-wrapped pineapple, and the classic potato salad.
You can also serve up nachos, quesadillas, pinwheel sandwiches, and burgers. There are also the cheesy meatball bombs, which funnily resemble a bocce ball.
And that has been our detailed guide on the best bocce ball food choices to serve your guests. Let us know if you try one of these at your next backyard party!