Dilute one can of concentrated tomato sauce with one quart of water; mince two medium-sized onions very fine and fry slowly in olive oil or drippings until they are a golden brown, and add to tomatoes. Fry one and one-half pounds of lean neck of lamb in a little drippings until the meat is nicely browned all over and add to the tomatoes, season with one clove of garlic, two bay leaves, two teaspoons of sugar, pepper and salt, and let it simmer for about one and one-half hours, or until the meat is tender and the sauce has become the consistency of thick cream. Have ready some boiled macaroni, put in with the meat and stir well. Serve hot. Short ribs of beef may be cooked in the same manner.
Prepare a rich "Chicken Fricassee" (recipe for which you will find among poultry recipes), but have a little more gravy than usual. Boil some noodles or macaroni in salted water, drain, let cold water run through them, shake them well and boil up once with chicken. Serve together on a large platter.
Two oxtails, jointed and washed; six onions sliced and browned in pot with oxtails. When nicely browned add water enough to cover and stew slowly one hour; then add two carrots, if small; one green pepper, sprig of parsley, one-half cup of tomatoes and six small potatoes, and cook until tender. Thicken with browned flour. Cook separately eight lengths of macaroni; place cooked macaroni on dish and pour ragout over it and serve hot. To brown flour take one-half cup of flour, put in pan over moderate heat and stir until nicely browned.
Spaghetti is a small and more delicate form of macaroni. It is boiled until tender in salted water and is combined with cheese and with sauces the same as macaroni, and is usually left long. It makes a good garnish.
After baking; some flour to a pale fawn color pass it through a sieve or strainer to remove its gritty particles. Break half a pound of macaroni into short pieces, boil them in salted water until fairly tender, then drain. In a little butter in a saucepan brown a level tablespoon of very finely chopped onion, then add three or four sliced tomatoes, a half teaspoon of powdered mixed herbs, a little nutmeg, salt and pepper. When the tomatoes are reduced to a pulp add one pint of milk and allow it to come to the boiling point before mixing with it two tablespoons of the browned flour moistened with water. Stir and boil till smooth, press the whole through a strainer and return to the saucepan. When boiling, add the macaroni and a few minutes later stir in two tablespoons of grated or finely chopped cheese. It may be served at once, but is vastly improved by keeping the pan for half an hour by the side of the fire in an outer vessel of water. Or the macaroni may be turned into a casserole and finished off in the oven. For a meat meal the onions may be browned in sweet drippings or olive oil and soup stock substituted for the milk.
Break three ounces of macaroni--noodles or spaghetti answer equally well--into small pieces, boil in rapidly boiling salted water; when tender drain off the water and add half a pint of milk; cook slowly till the macaroni has absorbed most of the milk. To half a pint of thick white sauce add two ounces of grated cheese and mix with the macaroni; last of all add two well-beaten eggs. Butter a pudding mold, sprinkle it with browned bread crumbs and pour in the macaroni mixture; steam gently for about half an hour, turn out and fill the centre with stewed tomatoes and mushrooms.
Cook one cup of broken macaroni in two quarts of boiling salted water for twenty or thirty minutes, drain and pour cold water through the colander. Put the macaroni in a pudding-dish in layers, covering each layer with cream sauce and grated cheese, one cup will be sufficient, and on the top layers sprinkle one cup of buttered bread crumbs. Bake in oven until the crumbs are brown.
Break the macaroni into small pieces; boil for half an hour; drain and blanch in cold water. Reheat in tomato or cream sauce and serve. Grated cheese may be sprinkled over the dish if desired.
Break up and cook until tender about a package of macaroni. Pick up the finnan haddie until you have about three-quarters as much as you have macaroni. Mix in a greased baking-dish and pour over a drawn butter sauce, made with cornstarch or with any good milk or cream dressing, then cover with bread or cracker crumbs or leave plain to brown in oven. Bake from twenty to thirty minutes.
To one pound beef, free from fat and cut up as pan stew, add one chopped green pepper, one large onion, two blades of garlic (cut fine), pepper and salt, with just enough water to cover. Let this simmer until meat is very tender. Add a little water as needed. Put in medium sized can of tomatoes an hour or so before using and have ready two cups of cooked spaghetti or macaroni and put this into the meat until thoroughly heated. This must not be too wet; let water cook away just before adding the tomatoes.
