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Macaroni Baked with Olives
3/4 cup macaroni 1 1/2 cups water 1/2 cup tomatoes 1 tablespoon oil, or butter substitute 1 bay leaf 1/4 teaspoon thyme 1 small onion, cut fine 1 teaspoon browned flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons white flour 1/2 cup sliced olives To make the browned flour, sift one pint of flour in a baking pan. Set it in the oven, and stir frequently until it is of a dark-brown color, about the shade of the shell of a chestnut. Sift this browned flour, put it into a glass jar, and keep it for use as needed.
Cook the macaroni according to directions.
Cook together the water, tomato, oil, bay leaf, onion, and browned flour for fifteen minutes. Then stir the white flour smooth with two tablespoons of cold water, and stir it into the sauce. Let it cook five minutes. Then rub the sauce through a strainer fine enough to remove the tomato seeds. Add the salt, thyme, and olives. When the macaroni is cooked and drained, stir it into this sauce. Put all in a baking pan, sprinkle with crumbs, and bake till well heated through.
A small tomato sauce thickened twice — once with browned flour for color and flavor, once with raw flour for body — then baked over macaroni. Nothing here is difficult, but two of the quantities need reading carefully before you start.
- The browned flour is a pantry stock, not part of the measureThe instructions have you toast a full pint of flour, but the dish itself uses only one teaspoon. Brown the pint if you want it on hand, or toast a few tablespoons in a dry skillet over medium heat for this batch alone. It should reach the color of a chestnut shell and smell nutty, not scorched.
- Oven temperaturesThe recipe gives none for either step. A moderate oven, around 350F, works for browning the flour; stir every few minutes, as it darkens unevenly and burns at the pan edges. The final baking is only to heat through and crisp the crumbs, since everything in the pan is already cooked — something like 375F for 20 to 25 minutes will do.
- Crumbs are missing from the listThe method calls for a sprinkle of crumbs that the ingredient list never mentions. Allow about 1/4 cup of dry breadcrumbs, tossed with a teaspoon of oil if you want them to color.
- Tomatoes"1/2 cup tomatoes" in a book of this period most likely means canned tomatoes with their juice, measured by the cup. Canned crushed tomatoes work directly; if using fresh, peel and chop and add a spoonful of water. Either way the sauce is strained to remove seeds.
- Butter substituteThe phrase covered any of several non-butter fats of the period, from oleomargarine to vegetable shortenings and nut fats. Olive oil is the obvious modern choice and suits the olives.
- StrainingPull the bay leaf out before you push the sauce through the sieve, or it will clog the mesh. The sauce is thin enough at this stage that a fine mesh strainer and the back of a spoon are enough.
- Macaroni"Cook according to directions" points to instructions elsewhere in the book; period directions for macaroni often called for much longer boiling than we use now. Cook to just under package al dente instead, since the pasta will absorb sauce and bake again.
- Salt and olivesA teaspoon of salt plus half a cup of brined olives is assertive. Add the salt after the olives and taste, especially if your olives are packed in a strong brine.
- YieldThree-quarters of a cup of dry macaroni is a small amount: two modest servings at most as a main dish, or three or four as a side. It scales up readily, though a doubled batch will want a wider pan and a little longer in the oven.