Recipes for Pasta

Ingredients

* 1 package of macaroni
* 1/2 can of tomatoes
* 2 teaspoons of salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons of paprika
* 1/4 pound of cheese, cut in small pieces
* 8 tablespoons of flour dissolved in 1/2 cup of water
* 4 onions, chopped fine

Instructions

Cook macaroni in a large kettle of boiling water for twenty minutes and then drain and pour over the macaroni a pan of cold water. Drain again.

Now return to the kettle and add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and cook slowly for ten minutes.

Instructions

Break half a pound of macaroni into pieces an inch or two long; cook it in boiling water, enough to cover it well; put in a good teaspoonful of salt; let it boil about twenty minutes. Drain it well and then put a layer in the bottom of a well-buttered pudding-dish; upon this some grated cheese and small pieces of butter, a bit of salt, then more macaroni, and so on, filling the dish; sprinkle the top layer with a thick layer of cracker crumbs. Pour over the whole a teacupful of cream or milk. Set it in the oven and bake half an hour. It should be nicely browned on top. Serve in the same dish in which it was baked with a clean napkin pinned around it.

Ingredients

* 1/4 pound of macaroni
* 1 tablespoonful butter
* 1 dessertspoon of flour
* 1/2 pint milk
* 1 teaspoonful of mustard
* 3 ounces of grated cheese

Instructions

Boil macaroni in water, for half an hour, cool and chop. Make a sauce of butter, flour, milk, mustard. Boil one minute; mix all together with grated cheese. Put in a shallow dish sprinkling top with cheese. Bake a golden brown and garnish with toast.

Ingredients

* 3 ounces of macaroni (noodles or spaghetti answer equally well)
* 1/2 pint of milk
* 1/2 pint of thick white sauce
* 2 ounces of grated cheese
* 2 well-beaten eggs
* browned bread crumbs
* stewed tomatoes and mushrooms

Instructions

Break macaroni into small pieces, boil in rapidly boiling salted water; when tender drain off the water and add milk; cook slowly till the macaroni has absorbed most of the milk. To white sauce add grated cheese and mix with the macaroni; last of all add the 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.

The combination of canned kidney beans and macaroni is a rather unusual one, but it makes a very appetizing dish, especially when canned tomatoes are added, as in the recipe here given.

Sufficient to serve eight.
Ingredients

* 1 cupful macaroni
* 2 quarts water
* 2 teaspoonfuls salt
* 2 tablespoonfuls butter
* 2 tablespoonfuls flour
* 3/4 cupful hot milk
* 1/2 cupful canned tomatoes
* 1 teaspoonful salt
* 1/4 teaspoonful pepper
* 1 cupful canned kidney beans

Instructions

Cook the macaroni in the salted water until it is tender and then drain it.

Prepare the sauce by melting the butter in a saucepan, rubbing the flour into it until a smooth paste is formed, and then adding slowly the hot milk. Cook this sauce for 5 minutes.

Force the tomato through a sieve, turn it into the hot sauce, and season all with salt and pepper.

Pour the sauce over the macaroni and the kidney beans, and then heat all together. When the food is thoroughly heated, turn it into a dish and serve.

Ingredients

* 1/4 pound macaroni
* 1 ounce butter
* 1/2 pound tomatoes
* parsley

Instructions

Use the best quality of macaroni. The smaller kinds are the most convenient as they cook more quickly. Spargetti is a favourite kind with most cooks. Break the macaroni into small pieces and drop it into fast boiling water. Cook with the lid off until quite tender. Be particular about this, as underdone macaroni is not a pleasant dish. With a little practise the cook will be able to calculate how much water is needed for it all to be absorbed by the time the macaroni is done. When done, drain well, add the butter, and shake over the fire until hot.

While the macaroni is cooking, skin the tomatoes, break in halves, and put into a tightly-covered saucepan. Do not add water. Set at the side of the stove to cook very slowly. They should never boil. When reduced to pulp they are done.

Pile the macaroni in the middle of a rather deep dish, and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Pour the tomato round and serve.

Ingredients

* 1 quart can of tomatoes
* 1 slice of onion
* 2 cloves
* pepper
* salt
* 1 ounce of butter
* 1 tablespoonful of flour

Instructions

Take tomatoes, put it over the fire in a stewpan, put in onion and cloves, a little pepper and salt; boil about twenty minutes; then remove from the fire and strain it through a sieve.

Now melt butter in another pan, and as it melts, sprinkle in flour; stir it until it browns and froths a little. Mix the tomato pulp with it, and it is ready for the table.

Excellent for mutton, chops, roast beef, etc.

Ingredients

* 12 sticks of macaroni
* 1 1/2 pints of stock
* 1 scant tablespoonful of flour
* 1 generous tablespoonful of butter
* salt
* pepper

Instructions

Break and wash the macaroni. Put it in a sauce-pan with the stock. Cover, and simmer half an hour.

Mix the butter and flour together. Stir this and the seasoning in with the macaroni. Simmer ten minutes longer, and serve.

A tablespoonful of grated cheese may be added.

Instructions

Boil and drain the macaroni. Take four tablespoons of table-butter, three tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese, add to the macaroni in the saucepan, mix well over the fire, and serve.

Cheese is combined with macaroni probably more often than any other food. It supplies considerable flavor to the macaroni and at the same time provides fat and additional protein.

Sufficient to serve six.
Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cupfuls macaroni
* 3 quarts boiling water
* 3 teaspoonfuls salt
* 1 1/2 tablespoonfuls butter
* 1 1/2 tablespoonfuls flour
* 1 teaspoonful salt
* 1/8 teaspoonful pepper
* 1/8 teaspoonful paprika
* 1 1/2 cupfuls milk
* 1 cupful grated or finely cut cheese
* 1/4 cupful crumbs

Instructions

Break the macaroni into inch lengths and cook it until it is tender in the 3 quarts of boiling water to which 3 teaspoonfuls of salt has been added.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, the 1 teaspoonful of salt, the pepper, and the paprika, stir until smooth, and then gradually add the milk, which should be hot. Allow to cook until it thickens.

Arrange the cooked macaroni in layers, pouring the sauce and sprinkling salt and cheese over each layer. Then cover the top layer with the crumbs and bake the food in a moderate oven for one half hour. Serve hot.

Which Pasta Is That?

With so many different pastas available now, it can be a bit overwhelming trying to work out which one is what. Well sit tight and we will take a quick journey into the world of pasta and determine which one is what.

• Cannelloni
• Cannelloni are large hollow tubes which are stuffed with sauce mixture. My favorite is ricotta and spinach sauce that is then baked in the oven with a tomato sauce over the top.
• Conchiglie
• Conchigle is the shell shaped pastas. These come in a variety of sizes from tiny shells that are good in soups to very large with can be stuffed. It is a good short pasta that is great with chunky sauces and attractive in pasta salads.
• Farfalle
• Bow shaped, this pasta is very useful and attractive in pasta salads.
• Fusilli
• These are thin spiral shapes. Fusilli is good with chunky style sauces because it holds onto the sauce well. It is also good in pasta salads for the same reason.
• Lasagna (Lasagne)
• Large flat sheets of pasta. Used in dishes of layered fillings such as meat and cheese sauce that are then baked in the oven.
• Macaroni
• Macaroni is a small hollow tube that is twisted. It is the classic pasta used in Macaroni Cheese.
• Spaghetti
• Well we all know this one. Spaghetti is long thin strands of pasta and great used in bolognese and carbonara sauces.
• Tagliatelle, Linguine, Fettuccine, Pappardelle
• Known as ribbon noodles, these are long and flat in varying widths. Great for use with creamy sauces.
• Ravioli
• One of the stuffed pastas. It is small, flat squares of pasta stuffed with any variety of fillings such as meat, cheese, mushrooms.
• Tortellini
• Another stuffed style of pasta. Made from semi circle pieces of pasta folded and rolled into a little round bundle.
• Vermicelli
• Very fine, thin strings of which the finest variety is called ‘angel hair’. It is best used with other fine ingredients such as prawns and crab. Vermicelli is often used to make ‘nests’ to hold the dish.

Hopefully this will take some of the confusion out of the next pasta recipe you read.

Have fun cooking and until our next cooking tip together.
Enjoy!
Lisa “The Crock Cook”

About the Author: Lisa has used pasta to create some delicious Crock Pot Pasta Meals at www.a-crock-cook.

Ingredients

* about 4 ounces of macaroni
* 4 or 5 mushrooms
* milk
* pepper
* salt
* tomato puree
* grated Parmesan and Cheddar

Instructions

Boil macaroni, and stew mushrooms in milk with pepper and salt. Put a layer of the macaroni in a buttered fireproof dish, then a layer of tomato puree, then a layer of the mushrooms and another layer of macaroni. Dust it all over with grated Parmesan and Cheddar, put it in the oven for half an hour, and serve very hot.

Ingredients

* 1/4 pound of macaroni
* 2 ounces of butter
* good gravy or stock
* 3 tablespoonsful of grated Parmesan and Cheddar mixed
* tiny pinch of nutmeg

Instructions

Cut up macaroni in small pieces and put it in boiling salted water. When sufficiently cooked, drain and put it into a saucepan with butter, add good gravy or stock, Parmesan and Cheddar mixed, and nutmeg. Stir over a brisk fire, and serve very hot.

Ingredients

* 4 ounces of macaroni
* good beef gravy
* 4 tablespoonsful of tomato puree
* thin slices of sausage
* grated Parmesan and Cheddar

Instructions

Half cook macaroni, drain it and put it in layers in a fireproof dish, and gradually add good beef gravy, tomato puree, and sausage. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and Cheddar, and cook for about twenty minutes. Before serving pass the salamander over the top to brown the macaroni.

Ingredients

* 1/4 pound of macaroni
* 1 onion, chopped fine
* 1 red pepper, chopped fine
* 4 bunches parsley, chopped fine
* yolks of 2 eggs
* 2 cups of cream sauce
* 1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
* 1 teaspoon of paprika

Instructions

Cook macaroni and then cool and chop fine. Place in a bowl and add onion, red pepper, parsley, egg yolks, cream sauce, salt, and paprika.

Beat to mix and then cut and fold in the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs. Pour into a greased baking dish and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. Serve at once.

Ingredients

* 3 ounces macaroni
* 1/2 pound cold meat
* pepper and salt
* 1/2 pint gravy
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 pint milk
* 1 teaspoonful parsley

Instructions

Boil the macaroni in stock or water. Mince the meat finely, and season with parsley, pepper, and salt. Rub a pudding basin or mould with butter, put the macaroni and meat in in layers, and season nicely. Beat up the eggs and milk and pour them over, cover with buttered paper, and steam for one hour. Turn out of the basin carefully, and pour round it a little nice brown gravy or white sauce.

Time: 1 hour.

Ingredients

* 1/2 package of macaroni
* 1 onion
* 1 tomato

Instructions

Cook macaroni in boiling water for fifteen minutes and then turn into a colander and place under cold running water.

Now mince onion and tomatoe fine and place 4 tablespoons of fat in a frying pan. When hot, add the onion and tomato, cook until soft and then add the macaroni. Toss gently until hot and then cover it closely to prevent drying out.

If too dry, add a couple of tablespoons of boiling water. Season with pepper, salt and 1/2 cup catsup.

Ingredients

* 1 pound of shin beef
* 3 pints of cold water
* 2 onions cut fine
* 1 medium-sized carrot cut in dice
* 1/2 cup of tomato aux fines herbes
* 2 teaspoons of salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons of paprika
* 6 ounces of prepared macaroni

Instructions

Wipe with damp cloth and cut beef in one-inch blocks. Roll in flour and brown quickly in hot fat. Place in a deep saucepan and add cold water, onions, and carrot. Bring to a boil and cook gently until the meat is tender. Now add tomato aux fines herbes, salt, paprika, and macaroni. Bring this mixture to a boil and then cook until the macaroni is well heated. Pour on a large platter and garnish with finely chopped parsley.

If small quantities of fried or boiled ham remain after a meal, they can be used with macaroni to make a very tasty dish known as macaroni Italian style. As ham is a highly seasoned meat, it improves the flavor of the macaroni and at the same time adds nutrition to the dish.

Sufficient to serve six.
Ingredients

* 1 cupful macaroni
* 2 quarts boiling water
* 2 teaspoonfuls salt
* 2 tablespoonfuls butter
* 2 tablespoonfuls flour
* 1 1/2 cupfuls scalded milk
* 2/3 cupful grated cheese
* 1 teaspoonful salt
* 1/2 teaspoonful paprika
* 1/2 cupful finely chopped, cold boiled ham
* 1/4 cupful crumbs

Instructions

Break the macaroni into inch lengths and cook it in the boiling water to which has been added 2 teaspoonfuls of salt. Drain, and then reheat it in a white sauce made of the butter, flour, and milk. Add the cheese and season with salt and paprika.

Arrange in layers in a baking dish, placing the cold ham between each two layers of macaroni and having the top layer of macaroni, sprinkle the crumbs on top of the upper layer, and bake the food until the crumbs are brown. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Ingredients

* 1/4 pound of pipe macaroni
* 1/2 pint of brown gravy
* 6 ounces of grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Wash the macaroni, and boil it in salt and water until quite tender; drain it, and put it into rather a deep dish. Have ready a pint of good brown gravy, pour it hot over the macaroni, and send it to table with grated Parmesan served on a separate dish. When the flavour is liked, a little pounded mace may be added to the water in which the macaroni is boiled; but this must always be sparingly added, as it will impart a very strong flavour.

Time: 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hour to boil the macaroni.

Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons.

Seasonable at any time.

Ingredients

* 2 ounces of butter
* 2 large onions
* 2 pounds of shin of beef
* 2 small slices of lean bacon (if at hand)
* salt and whole pepper to taste
* 3 cloves
* 2 quarts of water

For thickening

* 2 ounces of butter
* 3 ounces of flour

Instructions

Put the butter into a stewpan; set this on the fire, throw in the onions cut in rings, and fry them a light brown; then add the beef and bacon, which should be cut into small square pieces; season, and pour in a teacupful of water; let it boil for about ten minutes, or until it is of a nice brown colour, occasionally stirring the contents. Now fill up with water in the above proportion; let it boil up, when draw it to the side of the fire to simmer very gently for 1 1/2 hour; strain, and when cold, take off all the fat. In thickening this gravy, melt 3 oz. of butter in a stewpan, add 2 oz. of flour, and stir till of a light-brown colour; when cold, add it to the strained gravy, and boil it up quickly. This thickening may be made in larger quantities, and kept in a stone jar for use when wanted.

Time: Altogether, 2 hours.

Ingredients

* 1/4 pound of pipe or riband macaroni
* 1/2 pint of milk
* 1/2 pint of veal or beef gravy
* yolks of 2 eggs
* 4 tablespoonfuls of cream
* 3 ounces of grated Parmesan or Cheshire cheese
* 1 ounce of butter

Instructions

Wash the macaroni, and boil it in the gravy and milk until quite tender, without being broken. Drain it, and put it into rather a deep dish. Beat the yolks of the eggs with the cream and 2 tablespoonfuls of the liquor the macaroni was boiled in; make this sufficiently hot to thicken, but do not allow it to boil; pour it over the macaroni, over which sprinkle the grated cheese and the butter broken into small pieces; brown with a salamander, or before the fire, and serve.

Time: 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hour to boil the macaroni, 5 minutes to thicken the eggs and cream, 5 minutes to brown.

Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons.

Seasonable at any time.

Ingredients

* 1/2 pound of pipe macaroni
* 1/4 pound of butter
* 6 ounces of Parmesan or Cheshire cheese
* pepper and salt to taste
* 1 pint of milk
* 2 pints of water
* bread crumbs

Instructions

Put the milk and water into a saucepan with sufficient salt to flavour it; place it on the fire, and, when it boils quickly, drop in the macaroni. Keep the water boiling until it is quite tender; drain the macaroni, and put it into a deep dish. Have ready the grated cheese, either Parmesan or Cheshire; sprinkle it amongst the macaroni and some of the butter cut into small pieces, reserving some of the cheese for the top layer. Season with a little pepper, and cover the top layer of cheese with some very fine bread crumbs. Warm, without oiling, the remainder of the butter, and pour it gently over the bread crumbs. Place the dish before a bright fire to brown the crumbs; turn it once or twice, that it may be equally coloured, and serve very hot. The top of the macaroni may be browned with a salamander, which is even better than placing it before the fire, as the process is more expeditious; but it should never be browned in the oven, as the butter would oil, and so impart a very disagreeable flavour to the dish. In boiling the macaroni, let it be perfectly tender but firm, no part beginning to melt, and the form entirely preserved. It may be boiled in plain water, with a little salt instead of using milk, but should then have a small piece of butter mixed with it.

Time: 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hour to boil the macaroni, 5 minutes to brown it before the fire.

Sufficient for 6 or 7 persons.

Seasonable at any time.

Note: Riband macaroni may be dressed in the same manner, but does not require boiling so long a time.

Ingredients

* 1/4 pound of macaroni
* 1/2 cup of grated cheese
* 2 tablespoons of grated onion
* 1 tablespoon of finely minced parsley
* 2 teaspoons of salt
* 1 teaspoon of paprika
* 1 well-beaten egg

Instructions

Cook macaroni in boiling water for twenty minutes and then drain. Cool and then chop fine. Place in a bowl and add cheese, onion, parsley, salt, paprika, and egg. Mix thoroughly.

Mould into croquettes. Roll in flour and then dip in beaten egg. Roll in fine crumbs and fry in hot fat. Place in a hot oven for ten minutes to finish cooking.

Ingredients

* 2 ounces macaroni
* 1/2 pint white sauce
* 3 ounces dry cheese
* pepper and salt

Instructions

Put the macaroni into boiling salt and water, and boil for half an hour or until soft; strain off the water and cut into pieces about 1 1/2 inch long. Make the sauce by directions given elsewhere. Mix in half the cheese and some pepper and salt. Take a dish in which it can be served, and lay at the bottom some macaroni; then some sauce and a little of the dry cheese. Continue in this way till all the materials are used up, leaving plenty of dry cheese for the top. Put in the oven for five or ten minutes till a nice colour. Serve hot.

Time: 10 minutes.