No. 2967

Spaghetti Macaroni a la Prati

Macaroni Spaghetti a la Prati

Take half a pound of cold braised sweetbread escalops, one inch in diameter by three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness, and a quarter of a pound of cooked lean ham cut the same size and shape; fry both lightly in butter and moisten with some gravy (No. 404), espagnole sauce (No. 414) and Madeira wine; add two ounces of salted unsmoked tongue and one ounce of truffles. Blanch a pound of spaghetti in salted water for ten minutes, drain and put it back in the saucepan with melted glaze (No. 402), butter and a little of the gravy from the above stew; simmer and when finished cooking incorporate four ounces of grated parmesan; arrange two-thirds of this spaghetti in a circle on a dish, pour the stew in the center and cover with the remainder of the spaghetti.

← No. 2966 Spaghetti Macaroni a la Laurence Macaroni, Rice & Farinaceous No. 2968 Spaghetti Macaroni, Queen Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

A garnished pasta from the Delmonico kitchen: the spaghetti is finished in stock and cheese while a rich sweetbread ragout goes in the middle. Everything hinges on components made in advance, so read the cross-references before you shop.

The cross-referenced saucesNo. 404 is a gravy, No. 414 espagnole, No. 402 meat glaze — a stock reduced until it sets solid. In a modern kitchen a good demi-glace covers all three: use it thinned with stock where gravy is called for and straight from the jar, warmed, where glaze is called for.
Sweetbreads must already be cookedThe recipe assumes half a pound of veal sweetbreads already soaked, blanched, pressed under a weight and braised, then chilled so they slice cleanly. Sliced raw they will not hold the escalop shape and will weep in the pan.
Escalop sizeOne inch across by three-sixteenths thick is about 2.5 cm by 5 mm — thin coins, not cubes. Cut the ham to match so the two read as one garnish.
Salted unsmoked tongueThis is brined (pickled) beef or veal tongue, cooked and peeled, not smoked tongue. Delis still carry it; smoked tongue will dominate the truffle, so if that is all you can find, reduce it to an ounce.
TrufflesOne ounce of fresh black truffle is a serious expense today, and canned truffle is a shadow of it. A small quantity of good truffle paste or preserved truffle stirred in off the heat is closer in spirit than a large quantity of truffle oil.
The ten-minute blanchTen minutes in salted water is deliberately short of done — the spaghetti finishes in the glaze, butter and gravy, which it absorbs. Modern dried spaghetti is often ready in nine or ten minutes, so pull it at six or seven and let the pan do the rest.
Cheese off the boilFour ounces of grated parmesan (roughly 1¼ to 1½ cups, depending on how finely it is grated) goes in once the simmering is finished. Add it with the pan off the heat and toss so it emulsifies rather than seizing into strings.
Assembly and yieldTwo-thirds of the pasta is banked in a ring, the stew spooned into the well, the last third laid over the top. A pound of spaghetti with close to a pound of meat garnish serves four generously as a main course, six as a middle course in the period manner.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty years at Delmonico's in New York, and its macaroni chapter shows how Italian pasta entered the American luxury restaurant: not as a dish in its own right but as a base for French garnish. Here the spaghetti is treated exactly as a chef of the period would treat rice or a vol-au-vent case — a vehicle for sweetbreads, tongue, ham and truffle bound in espagnole. The dish is one of a run of numbered "spaghetti macaroni" variations named after individuals, a practice often said to have commemorated regular patrons, visiting artists or colleagues, though the book does not document it as such; who Prati was is not recorded. The word escalop for a thin round slice, and glaze for reduced stock, belong to the professional French vocabulary Ranhofer expected his readers to already possess.