To dress [a] macaroni – cheese optional
A recipe from Emily’s mother, Hannah, titled ‘To dress Maccaroni’ made me think not so much of pasta, but of the eighteenth century dandies known as macaroni! These outlandish gentlemen were easily identified by their extravagant, brightly coloured clothing and enormously high powdered wigs, fashioned into curls that resembled tubular pasta. Typically, a ‘macaroni’ had recently returned from the Grand Tour, where he developed a taste for foreign fashion and food, including the Italian pasta maccheroni. An article in Town and Country magazine in March 1772 explained that Englishmen adopted the term macaroni because of the tendency of Italians ‘to figuratively call everything they think elegant and uncommon, Macaroni’.
Though the macaroni fashion craze lasted for only a decade, and disappeared by the mid 1770s, the taste for pasta remained. Interestingly, recipes using pasta appear in cookbooks from the Middle Ages. Pasta continued to be imported to Britain over the ensuing centuries although it was not prolific until its popularity expanded in the late nineteenth century, eventually becoming the staple food that we know and love. Next time you eat your mac’n’cheese, think of those wonderfully eccentric, eighteenth-century macaroni men!
Emily includes two macaroni recipes in her book, both from her mother and therefore deriving from the late 1700s. Back then, macaroni usually came in long tubes (‘piped’) rather than the smaller pieces that are readily available today.
To dress Maccaroni / My Mother’s
3 oz of piped Maccaroni boiled gently for 2 hours in 2 Quarts of water, quarter of an oz of Butter, & a little salt – When very tender strain the water off, & add one oz of raw butter, & a 1/4 lb of Parmesan cheese grated, season it with pepper & salt to your taste, top it well till it is thoroughly mixed with the Cheese. Serve it up in a well warmed dish – serve a little of the cheese to strew over the top of the maccaroni – it should not be put over the fire after the cheese is in – reserve the finishing till the moment of serving it up – If you think it more relishing you may add a small slice of Ham, when you boil the maccaroni, & it is much better when the maccaroni is steeped the night before in good veal Broth & the yolk of an Egg is added instead of the butter — N.B. This is also a good receipt for a Pie omitting the Cheese
I can’t bear to think of boiling any pasta for two hours, but if you adjust the cooking time this is basically a simple version of mac’n’cheese without the need to make a cheese sauce – more like cacio e pepe. Adding the yolk of an egg instead of the butter provides a good protein hit too. And a pie crust on top? I’m in!
Maccaroni Soup / My Mother’s
Take a knuckle of veal, six lb of lean beef, 1/2 lb lean Ham, 2 fowls cut small – Put it into a stew pan with 6 quarts of water, stir it well, add 3 onions, one carrot, 3 heads of celery, a little mace, allspice & white pepper – when boiled & strained, put a 1/4 lb Maccaroni boiled tender, let it boil before you put in the seasoning – For the seasoning take 9 yolks of eggs & a pint of thick cream mixed well – You may make a rice soup & Vermicelli this way by putting the same quantity of rice or Vermicelli.
This is basically a version of the classic Italian dish pasta in brodo, which is very nourishing and especially good in winter – and sufficient to feed a crowd judging by the quantities of ingredients. Here is a simplified version that can be made quickly and easily, enough to serve two people.
Dice two carrots, one onion and one stick of celery and sauté in a little olive oil with half a teaspoon of allspice and a pinch of white pepper (or a grind of black pepper).
Add 600ml of water or chicken stock, bring to the boil then add 100g macaroni or short pasta and reduce to a simmer until the macaroni is al dente.
Stir in a handful of cooked, shredded or chopped meat of your choice such as a chicken breast, a few pieces of ham or beef (leftovers from a Sunday roast would be ideal).
Finally, mix together one egg yolk and 1/4 cup of cream, and stir into the broth. Serve immediately.
A horrified father encounters his ‘macaroni’ son in the street!