_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.