(Soupe à la Sémoule.)
Semoulina is used in the same way as the vermicelli. It should be dropped very lightly and by degrees into the boiling soup, which should be stirred all the time it is being added, and very frequently afterwards; indeed, it should scarcely be quitted until it is ready for table. Skim it carefully, and let it simmer from twenty to five-and-twenty minutes. This, when the semoulina is good and fresh, is, to our taste, an excellent soup.
Soup, 3 quarts; semoulina, 6 oz.; nearly, or quite 25 minutes.
MACARONI SOUP.
Throw four ounces of fine fresh[[19]] mellow Naples maccaroni into a pan of fast-boiling water, with about an ounce of fresh butter, and a small onion stuck with three or four cloves.[[20]] When it has swelled to its full size, and become tender, drain it well, cut it into half-inch lengths, and slip it into a couple of quarts of clear gravy-soup: let it simmer for a few minutes, when it will be ready for table. Observe, that the macaroni should be boiled quite tender; but it should by no means be allowed to burst, nor to become pulpy. Serve grated Parmesan cheese with it.
[19]. We must here repeat our warning against the use of long-kept macaroni, vermicelli, or semoulina; as when stale they will render any dish into which they are introduced quite unfit for table.
[20]. For white soups omit the onion.
Macaroni, 4 oz.; butter, 1 oz.; 1 small onion; 5 cloves; 3/4 hour, or more. In soup, 5 to 10 minutes.
Obs.—The macaroni for soups should always be either broken into short lengths before it is boiled, or cut as above, or sliced quickly into small rings not more than the sixth of an inch thick after it is boiled, unless the cut or ring macaroni, which may be purchased at the Italian warehouses, be used; this requires but ten minutes’ boiling, and should be dropped into the soup in the same way as vermicelli.[[21]] Four ounces of it will be sufficient for two quarts of stock. It may be added to white soup after having been previously boiled in water or veal-broth, and well drained from it: it has a rather elegant appearance in clear gravy-soup, but should have a boil in water before it is thrown into it.
[21]. For the different varieties of macaroni and vermicelli, and the time required to boil each of them, see Chapter [XXI].