Casey Elsass is here to take the stress out of every partygoer's favorite question with recipes from his new cookbook, "What Can I Bring?: Recipes to Help You Live Your Guest Life."
The veteran food and cookbook writer joined "Good Morning America" and "GMA3" on Friday to share a few standout dishes from the book, which includes 75 crowd-pleasing recipes designed with portability and ease in mind.
Truffle mushroom and smash burger recipes to try for National Hamburger DayElsass showed us how to make pasta salad, "scrunchy bread" and party Krispie treats, complete with tips for packing and serving with minimal stress on-site.
Check out the recipes below.
Servings: 6
"I could write an entire book about pasta salad, I just think it's so perfect. Pasta is the blankest canvas for whatever you want -- for evidence, please see 1 million pasta dishes everywhere -- so I really don't think there is a wrong answer here. But I do need to take a moment of your time to speak my truth about pasta salad. It often has cherry tomatoes and they're rarely good ones. It usually has raw red onion, which is immediately too pungent 3 seconds after dicing."
"It usually has a chopped herb of some kind that just withers into brownness as it sits. And most people fumble the best window of flavor by not letting the hot pasta soak in the flavors of the sauce! To all these ends, I've made three sauces that hit the mark for my dream salad: a spicy red sauce made with broiled cherry tomatoes, an Italian sub – inspired dressing made with lightly pickled red onions, and a quick little pesto for a vibrantly green chopped herb. And you better believe all three versions get tossed with the pasta hot out of the pot so the noodles can slightly soften and extremely saturate."
Ingredients
Pasta sauce (see below)
Kosher salt
12 to 16 ounces dried pasta in a fun shape, such as fusilli, gemelli, orecchiette, radiatori or rigatoni
8 ounces mozzarella pearls, drained
4 ounces sliced salami, cut into 1/4-inch strips (optional)
1 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves
1 cup lightly packed fresh parsley leaves
1/2 cup sliced kalamata olives
1/2 cup sliced banana peppers, hot or mild
2 ounces Parmesan cheese
Directions
1. Make your pasta sauce and keep it close by. In a large Dutch oven, combine 12 cups water and 1 tablespoon salt. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Stir in the pasta and cook until just al dente, according to the directions on the box. Drain in a colander and give it a few good shakes to get the water out.
2. In a large bowl, toss the pasta with about a third of the sauce. (Just eyeball it, it's all going in there eventually anyway.) Let the pasta sit for about 15 minutes to cool down. Then add any combo of the mozzarella, salami, basil, parsley, olives and peppers, and toss to combine. I need all of them to function, but this is your salad.
3. Finally, toss in the last of the sauce. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours -- the flavor really improves the longer the ingredients mingle. Let it sit at room temperature, covered, for 30 minutes before serving. My only request is to save the Parm until just before serving and use a vegetable peeler to shave it directly into the bowl. Toss lightly, but mostly leave it on top.
Red Sauce
Preheat the oven to 500 F. In an 8-by-8-inch baking pan or oven-safe skillet, stir together 10 ounces whole cherry or grape tomatoes, 8 sun-dried tomatoes that have been finely chopped, 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 2 grated garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, an optional 1 tablespoon Calabrian chile paste if you like it spicy, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Broil until the tomatoes are bursting, about 6 minutes.
Oil + Vin
In a medium bowl, combine 1/2 of a medium red onion that's been very thinly sliced, 2 grated garlic cloves, and 1/4 cup red wine vinegar. Let the onions soak for 5 minutes to soften. Whisk in 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.
Pesto
In a food processor, combine 2 cups baby spinach, 1 cup fresh basil leaves, 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts, 2 ice cubes, the juice of 1 lemon, 2 grated garlic cloves, either 2 teaspoons white miso or 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Process until the ice cubes stop rattling around and everything is nicely chopped. Add 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil and pulse 2 times just to combine.
Tips from Elsass:
Makes an 8-inch round
"Welcome to Part Two of freezer dough reinvented. Phyllo is our focus this time for a round loaf that's all crispy, shattering layers on the outside, all warm and savory on the inside. Blending up sun-dried tomatoes with feta will get you a perfectly salty, rich center and then it's just dabbing a little olive oil as you layer up the phyllo and filling. This is the 'Wow, what is in this?' moment we all fantasize about."
Ingredients
16-ounce box frozen phyllo dough, thawed
8-ounce jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil
6 ounces feta
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves
1 1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil
Sesame seeds and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
1. Remember to set the phyllo dough in the refrigerator overnight to thaw.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 F and set a rack in the center. Dip a pastry brush into the sun-dried tomato oil and lightly brush the bottom and sides of an 8-inch (or 9-inch) cake pan. Fold a piece of parchment in half lengthwise and press to adhere across the cake pan (for an easy lift later) and brush that too.
3. In a blender or food processor, combine the sun-dried tomatoes with the rest of their oil, the feta broken into rough crumbles, and oregano. Process until a smooth mixture forms.
4. Reserve 2 tablespoons in a small bowl and keep the rest in the blender.
5. Unroll the phyllo on a clean counter. Pour 1 cup of the olive oil into a small bowl. Lay a sheet of phyllo in the pan, letting the edges hang over. Dip a pastry brush in the olive oil and lightly brush the dough. Repeat this until you have 10 layers of dough on the bottom. Don't worry if any of the sheets tear, it's all baking together anyway.
6. Pour about half of the tomato mixture over the phyllo and use a spatula to spread in an even layer.
7. Continue layering and brushing the rest of the sheets, then pour the rest of the tomato mixture and spread again.
8. Whisk the reserved tomato mixture with the remaining 1/2 cup olive oil.
9. Start folding the overhang into the center a couple pieces at a time and lightly brushing the top with the tomato oil. I like to spread the first few pieces flat so the filling is covered, then start making pretty scrunches around the surface with the rest. (You can even trim off some of the overhang to twist and scrunch and place around the top.)
10. Brush any remaining tomato oil over the top, then generously sprinkle sesame seeds and some good cracks of pepper across the surface.
11. Slide the pan into the oven and set a timer for 45 minutes.
12. The phyllo should be golden brown and crispy, but give it another 5 minutes if you think it needs it.
13. Cool for 15 minutes (or completely) in the pan, then use the parchment to airlift it to a cutting board or serving plate.
14. Slide the parchment out from underneath before slicing and serving.
Party tricks:
This is perfect at room temperature, but if you really want to serve it hot, assemble everything at home and cover the top of the pan before transporting.
Plan your oven space ahead of time with your host, bake it, cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then use the parchment to lift out and serve right away.
Any leftover bread can be stored in a zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Tips from Elsass:
Makes 12 squares
"A quick toss with some lightly browned butter and toasted coconut shreds gives these krispies an unusually great depth of flavor. We could stop right there, but where's the fun in that? What makes these party krispies is the no rules, no limits toppings as you pile on everything sweet and gorgeous and fun. There's a long list of my favorites in the ingredient list, and the only advice I have for you is to think strategically when you're planning out what to buy, keeping in mind that you ideally want a mix of colors, sizes, textures, flavors, and shapes for maximum impact."
Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
10-ounce bag mini marshmallows
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
6 cups Rice Krispies (from a 12-ounce box; see party tricks)
Any combination of crushed mini pretzels, crushed potato chips, crushed Oreos, crushed frosted animal crackers, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, rainbow sprinkles, confetti sprinkles, decorative sprinkles, sparkling sugar, sanding sugar, edible glitter, Fruity Pebbles, Lucky Charms marshmallows, or flaky sea salt, for garnish
Directions
1. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with nonstick spray. Measure a 16-inch piece of parchment. Fold it in half lengthwise and press it lengthwise into the baking pan so there's a little overhang on each side. (Metal binder clips are super helpful for keeping the parchment in place.) Coat the parchment with a little more spray, too.
2. In a large Dutch oven (see party tricks), melt the butter over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the coconut and use a rubber spatula to coat in the butter. We're going to lightly toast the coconut and lightly brown the butter at the same time, so stay sharp.
3. Let the mixture simmer and bubble, stirring occasionally. At about 4 minutes, it'll be pretty foamy. Start stirring continuously so you can see what's going on in there. Around 5 or 6 minutes in, the coconut will have a light golden toast and the butter will be tan.
4. Remove from the stove and immediately stir in the marshmallows and salt. Keep stirring until they're about 75 percent melted, then add the Rice Krispies. Very slowly and gently fold in the cereal as the marshmallows finish melting. (You'll hear some snap, crackle, and popping -- totally normal.)
5. Scrape into the prepared baking pan. Lightly coat a smaller piece of parchment with nonstick spray and use it to press the mixture into an evenly distributed rectangle (see Party Tricks). While it's still sticky, blanket the top with a mix of treats.
6. Slide the pan into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to set. When the krispies feel firm, use the sling to lift them out of the pan and onto a large cutting board.
7. Slide the parchment out from underneath, then slice into 12 equal squares. Arrange them on a serving platter or store somewhere cool until it's go time.
Party tricks:
Rice Krispies are not gluten-free! A few brands are, like Nature's Path and One Degree Organic Foods. Just pay attention to your toppings if you're going GF.
A light-colored enamel or stainless-steel pot will help you monitor the butter browning. Anything with a black surface will literally leave you in the dark.
Leftover treats can be stored in a zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Tips from Elsass:
Recipes reprinted with permission from "What Can I Bring?" by Casey Elsass © 2025. Published by Union Square & Co., an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group.
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