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Italian Spinach
3/4 cup cooked macaroni (cut into inch lengths) 2 cups cooked spinach 1/2 cup white sauce 2 tablespoons grated cheese cayenne and salt 2 hard cooked eggs--sliced Boil macaroni in salted water until tender. Drain spinach very dry. Chop, mix with white sauce and season well. Grease baking dish, put alternate layers of macaroni, spinach, cheese, seasonings and egg until all is used, leaving cheese on top. Bake in a moderate oven (375 degrees F.) for 20 minutes or until brown and well heated through. Serves 6.
A tidy layered gratin that reads like a Depression-era way of stretching a little cheese and two eggs across six plates. The measurements are workable as written; a few notes will keep it from turning watery or bland.
- Dry the spinach properlyThis is the hinge of the dish. Two cups of cooked spinach holds a surprising amount of water, and any of it left behind will thin the white sauce and pool in the baking dish. Press it hard in a sieve or wring it in a towel before chopping.
- Quantities in the rawTwo cups of cooked, squeezed spinach means roughly 2 lb of fresh leaf, or two 10 oz blocks of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained. Three-quarters of a cup of cooked macaroni is about 1/3 cup dry.
- The white sauceHalf a cup is a small amount, built from 1 tablespoon each butter and flour with 1/2 cup milk. Make it thick rather than pourable so it binds the spinach instead of loosening it.
- Oven temperatureThe book gives 375F alongside "moderate," which is at the upper end of that range but correct here. Twenty minutes is enough only if the components go in hot; if the spinach and macaroni have cooled, allow 30 to 35 minutes.
- CheeseThe recipe says only "grated cheese" and leaves the choice open. Parmesan or a firm aged Cheddar both work; two tablespoons is a light hand, and doubling it improves the browned top.
- Season with intentSpinach, macaroni and a flour-based sauce are all bland, and the recipe's own instruction to "season well" should be taken seriously. Salt the spinach mixture until it tastes right on its own, and use the cayenne in a genuine pinch rather than a trace.
- EggsSliced hard-cooked egg dries out under direct oven heat, so keep the slices in the interior layers rather than on the surface, beneath the cheese.
- ServingSix servings only as a side dish. As a supper in its own right it feeds three, and wants bread and something acidic alongside.