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Macaroni and Tomato Sauce No. 1
4 ounces macaroni 1/2 pint of milk Pepper and salt 1/2 pint tomato sauce Follow the directions given in recipe for "Macaroni with Cheese," as to the boiling of the macaroni in water and stewing it in milk. Let it absorb all the milk. Pile it on a dish, and pour over it a half pint of tomato sauce, prepared according to directions given for "Tomato Sauce."
A two-stage macaroni: boiled in water, then simmered in milk until the milk is gone, and sauced at the table. The recipe leans on two others in the same chapter, so read it as a method rather than a standalone.
- The measurementsIf this is an American book, a half pint is one cup (8 fl oz) of milk and the same again of tomato sauce. Four ounces of dry macaroni is roughly a cup of elbows, or a quarter of a one-pound box.
- YieldFour ounces of dry pasta serves two as a light main course, or four as a side. Scale the milk and sauce with it.
- The hinge: absorbing the milkAfter boiling, the macaroni is stewed in milk over low heat until every drop is taken up. Milk scorches readily, so use a heavy pan, keep the heat gentle and stir; a skin of burnt milk on the bottom will flavour the whole dish.
- Boil it less than the book intendsPeriod instructions often call for twenty to thirty minutes of boiling. Because the macaroni goes on to simmer in milk, boil it several minutes short of done — around two-thirds of the package time — or the finished dish will be mush.
- Season at both stagesThe pepper and salt are listed without a point of addition. Salt the boiling water, then correct again during the milk stew, when the pasta can actually take the seasoning up.
- The tomato sauceTomato sauces of this period are typically a cooked, sieved, lightly thickened purée rather than a long-simmered Italian ragù, though the cross-referenced recipe is not reproduced here. A plain passata reduced with butter and salt is likely closer than a jarred pasta sauce.
- Serving"Pile it on a dish" means a mound on a hot serving platter with the sauce poured over, not tossed through. Warm the dish first; milk-bound pasta cools fast.
Meatless cookbooks of the early twentieth century often placed macaroni among the meat substitutes, and the milk here is part of the reason: pasta stewed in milk and served with cheese or a sauce was argued to supply something of the protein a meat course would have. That argument gained urgency during the First World War, when American households were urged toward meatless and wheatless days and food writers looked for dishes that felt substantial without a joint at the centre. Macaroni was well established in the United States by then — imported and, increasingly, domestically made — but it was still generally cooked the Anglo-American way, boiled soft rather than al dente and treated as a base for sauce or a milk-and-cheese binding. Tomato sauce as a companion was familiar enough to be given its own reference recipe elsewhere in the book, which is why this entry can be so brief.