Pasta Recipes
PASTA - MACARONI, SPAGHETTI, AND VERMICELLI
These are made from wheaten flour mixed with a small quantity of water.
Vermicelli is used in soup and puddings; macaroni and spaghetti are used
as vegetables. Macaroni is a very nutritious and also an economical food,
and should be used much more extensively than it is.
It should never be washed, as the boiling water in cooking will better
take off anything that needs to be removed. Always cook it in boiling
salted water until tender, before serving it in any way. Drain, and pour
cold water over it to keep it from becoming pasty.
Pasta Recipe, No. 1
Break one quarter of a pound of macaroni into three-inch pieces, and
put into three pints of boiling salted water. Boil twenty minutes, or
until soft. Drain in a colander, and pour cold water through it to cleanse
it and keep it from sticking. Cut into inch pieces. Lay the strips on
a board, parallel to each other, and cut through them all at once. Put
in a shallow baking-dish and cover with a white sauce.
Add half a teaspoon of salt. Mix two-thirds of a cup of fine cracker
crumbs with a third of a cup of melted butter, and sprinkle over the top.
Bake until the crumbs are brown. If cheese be liked with it, use half
a cup of grated Parmesan or any other dry cheese. Put part of it with
the macaroni, and mix the remain der with the crumbs.
Pasta Recipe, No. 2
Pour a white sauce over the macaroni, and serve the grated cheese on
a separate dish.
Pasta Recipe, No. 3
Mix two hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine, with the macaroni. Sprinkle
each layer with salt and pepper, and add a little prepared mustard, if
you wish. Cover with milk and buttered crumbs, and bake until the crumbs
are brown.
SPAGHETTI
This is a variety of macaroni, only very much smaller in diameter. It
is cooked the same as the ordinary macaroni, and served the same with
cream or tomato sauce, cheese, and crumbs. Spaghetti may be served without
cutting, if one is skilled in the art of winding it around the fork the
same as the Italians do.
Macaroni, if properly cooked, is certainly a very palatable dish, and
is very nutritious. Where the cost of food is a question of importance
to as many of us as it is at the present time, its use should be cultivated
and appreciated. With the Italians it forms a large part of their daily
sustenance, and when we take into consideration the great amount of hard,
laborious work that is accomplished by this race in our country, we cannot
doubt that their food, cheap though it may be, is remarkably sustaining.