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Fish with Spaghetti
2 tablespoons shortening 1/2 cup bread crumbs 3 cups cooked spaghetti 1 cup cooked fish, flaked 1/2 green pepper, chopped 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1 1/2 cups milk Melt 1 tablespoon shortening in a baking dish, and cover with half the crumbs. Add alternate layers of spaghetti, fish, green pepper and seasoning until all are used. Add milk, sprinkle with remainder of bread crumbs and dot with shortening. Bake 15 minutes in a hot oven 425 degrees F. Serves 8.
A plain milk-and-crumb casserole built from leftovers, of the sort that filled Friday and Lenten menus. It needs almost nothing but attention to the liquid and the crumb topping.
- ShorteningIn this period "shortening" means lard or a hydrogenated vegetable fat such as Crisco. Butter works as well here and tastes better in a milk-based dish; you need about 2 tablespoons total, one for greasing and layering and one for dotting the top.
- OvenThe recipe gives its own number, 425F, which is correct for a "hot oven." At that heat 15 minutes browns the crumbs and heats the dish through, but only if the fish, spaghetti and milk go in warm rather than refrigerator-cold. Cold ingredients need 25 to 30 minutes, or the centre will still be cool.
- The milk is the hingeThere is no roux, egg or flour, so the 1 1/2 cups of milk sets only as far as the starch on the spaghetti and the crumbs will thicken it. Use a dish that the layers fill snugly, roughly an 8-inch square or a 1 1/2-quart baking dish, so the milk comes near the top layer instead of pooling underneath.
- Cooked fishA cup of flaked fish is roughly 5 to 6 ounces of cooked weight, or one good-sized fillet. Firm white fish, leftover poached salmon or drained canned salmon or tuna all suit it. Pick over the flakes for bones and skin before layering.
- Bread crumbsDry crumbs rather than fresh soft ones are most likely intended. Fresh crumbs will dissolve into the milk instead of forming a top; if that is all you have, dry them in the oven first.
- Seasoning1/2 teaspoon of pepper is assertive by modern taste for eight servings. Halve it if the fish is delicate, and note the recipe adds no acid or aromatics beyond the green pepper; a squeeze of lemon or a little grated onion in the layers is in keeping.
- YieldEight servings assumes this is one dish among several on a menu. As a main course with only a salad beside it, treat it as four to five.