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Macaroni with Tomato Sauce
Reheat Boiled Macaroni in one and one-half cups of Tomato Sauce I, sprinkle with grated cheese, and serve; or prepare as Baked Macaroni, using Tomato in place of White Sauce.
Macaroni a 1'Italienne 3/4 cup macaroni 2 quarts boiling salted water 1/2 onion 2 cloves 1 1/2 cups Tomato Sauce II 1/2 cup grated cheese 2 tablespoons wine 1/2 tablespoon butter Cook macaroni in boiling salted water, with butter and onion stuck with cloves; drain, remove onion, reheat in Tomato Sauce, add cheese and wine. Macaroni, Italian Style 1 cup macaroni 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons flour 1 1/2 cups scalded milk 2/3 cup grated cheese Salt and paprika 1/4 cup finely chopped cold boiled ham Break macaroni in one-inch pieces and cook in boiling salted water, drain, and reheat in sauce made of butter, flour, and milk, to which is added cheese. As soon as cheese is melted, season with salt and paprika, and turn on to a serving dish. Sprinkle with ham, and garnish with parsley.
Three short macaroni dishes that all assume you already have boiled macaroni and a made sauce on hand. The cooking is quick; the only real work is the sauce and not overcooking the pasta.
- Cross-references"Tomato Sauce I" and "Tomato Sauce II" are separate recipes elsewhere in the book; this page does not say how the two differ. Any well-reduced tomato sauce of about 1 1/2 cups works; it should be thick enough to coat, not soupy.
- Macaroni of the periodMacaroni then usually meant long hollow tubes sold in straight lengths, which is why the third recipe tells you to break it into one-inch pieces. Modern elbow macaroni needs no breaking. No cooking time is given here; go by the package and stop at al dente, since it gets a second heating in sauce.
- Quantities and yield3/4 to 1 cup of dry macaroni is roughly 3 to 4 oz, which serves two generously or three as a side. Two quarts of water is ample for that amount; salt it to about a tablespoon.
- Onion stuck with clovesThe half onion pierced with two whole cloves flavors the cooking water, a French habit carried into American cookbooks. The recipe has you drain first and then remove the onion; count the cloves so neither ends up in the dish.
- The wineTwo tablespoons of wine go in at the end, after the cheese, chiefly for aroma; warm it through only. The recipe does not say what wine to use.
- Baked versionFor the baked variant mentioned in the first line, combine the drained macaroni with the tomato sauce and top with grated cheese, following the book's separate Baked Macaroni recipe. No oven temperature is given here; a moderate oven until bubbling and browned is the modern equivalent.
- Cheese"Grated cheese" is left unspecified; a dry aged cheese such as Parmesan, or a sharp cheddar, suits either sauce. Stir it in until just melted, as the recipe directs; boiling it afterward makes the sauce grainy.
- The hamAny cooked ham, finely diced, does the same job as the cold boiled ham called for; scatter it on at the last moment so it stays distinct rather than disappearing into the sauce.
Macaroni came into American cookbooks by way of English cookery, commonly baked with cream and cheese, and only later appeared as something recognizably Italian. The three versions on this page show that range in miniature: a plain tomato reheat, a dish labeled a l'Italienne with clove-stuck onion and a splash of wine, and a third called "Italian Style" that is in fact a bechamel with cheese and ham. Large-scale Italian immigration was already changing what Americans ate, but domestic-science writers of this era tended to absorb the new dishes into the familiar white-sauce vocabulary they taught in cooking schools.