When the macaroni is cooked as in the preceding receipt, arrange it in the centre of a large hot platter; brown the top with the salamander; place around it, as a garnish, little diamonds of Welsh rare-bits (see page 264). This is a nice dish to serve in place of cheese.
Macaroni, with Sweet-breads.
Parboil, egg, bread-crumb, and sauté the sweet-breads. Place them in the centre of a large hot platter; arrange macaroni (cooked with cheese) around it, and brown the top with the salamander.
Macaroni, with Tomato-sauce.
Sauce.—Put butter size of an egg into a saucepan; when it is at the boiling-point, throw in an onion (minced), two sprigs of parsley (chopped fine), and a little pepper. Let it cook five or eight minutes; then throw in a heaping table-spoonful of flour and a little broth from the stock-pot (if there be no broth, use a little boiling water). Stir this well, and let it cook five or eight minutes longer. Now pour in about a coffee-cupful of tomatoes which have been stewed and strained through a colander or sieve, and stir all together.
Boil half a pound of macaroni tender in well-salted boiling water or in stock, and drain it in the colander. Place alternate layers of the macaroni and the sauce on a hot dish, pouring the sauce over the top; put the dish into the oven two or three minutes to soak the sauce. Serve immediately.
This sauce is simple and very nice. I change it from the receipt of the “London Cooking-teacher,” which requires a few additions. His sauce is as follows: Cut a carrot and an onion into little dice, and prepare a bouquet, i. e., tie a little parsley, thyme, and a bay leaf together. Put into a stew-pan some butter (size of a large egg); when it is hot, throw into it the vegetables, bouquet, and three or four whole peppers; let them cook for eight or ten minutes. Then mix in a heaping table-spoonful of flour, and a little of the pot-au-feu broth; boil this eight or ten minutes longer; then add a cupful of cooked and strained tomatoes. Stir all together.
Macaroni au Gratin (New York Cooking-school).
Ingredients: Half a pound of macaroni, four ounces of cheese, two ounces of butter, three-quarters of a cupful of Bechamel sauce.
Boil the macaroni as described in “macaroni with cheese.” When well drained, pour over it nearly all of the sauce and the grated cheese; toss it in the saucepan, mixing it well together without breaking the macaroni; put it into a gratin dish; pour first the remainder of the sauce over the top, then the remainder of the cheese, and over this sprinkle a table-spoonful of cracker-dust and dots of butter. Put it into a very hot oven ten minutes, coloring the top.