TOMATO PASTE. This is a concentrated paste made from tomatoes and spices to be had of importers or grocers in Italian neighborhoods. Thinned with water, it is a much used ingredient in Italian recipes. Catsup and concentrated tomato soup do not make satisfactory substitutes as they are too sweet in flavor, but canned tomatoes seasoned with salt and a bit of bay leaf, cooked down to a thick cream and rubbed through a sieve, serve very well in lieu of tomato paste.

PARMESAN CHEESE. When an Italian recipe calls for grated cheese it usually means Parmesan. This is practically unobtainable now, except the grated, bottled cheese, which is inferior in flavor. GruyÈre, our own brick cheese, or any skim milk cheese dried and grated fresh as needed makes a good substitute.

DRIED MUSHROOMS. These may be had of importers or small groceries in foreign neighborhoods. They sound expensive until one realizes that a very few ounces go a long way. They make a pleasing variety added to soups or sauces, and are much cheaper and more highly flavored than the canned mushrooms. They should be thoroughly washed and softened in warm water before using.

ANCHOVIES. These recipes do not call for the filets of anchovy prepared for hors-d'oeuvres, but the less expensive and larger whole anchovies in salt to be had in bulk or cans at large dealers. To clean them plunge in boiling water. This loosens the skin and removes superfluous salt. Remove head, tail, backbone and skin and they are ready for use.

GARLIC. Garlic is an inoffensive and wholesome ingredient if properly handled. Used in small quantities and thoroughly cooked it gives an indescribable flavor that is never disagreeable. By "a clove of garlic" is meant one of the tiny sections of a whole garlic peeled down to its white, fleshy core.

SUBSTITUTION OF OTHER INGREDIENTS. Many of the recipes which have been written down just as they were given can be made more economical and no less delicious by the substitution of clarified drippings, vegetable shortenings and corn or nut oils for salt pork, butter or bacon. Corn-starch is recommended for thickening instead of flour. Anyone who does not care for as much cheese or tomato as the Italian likes, may omit them entirely or greatly reduce the quantity in most of the recipes and still have an excellent dish.

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Soups

BROWN STOCK
Sugo di Carne

• 1 lb. beef from some tough but juicy cut
• A small piece of salt pork
• A large onion
• A stalk of celery
• 2 tablespoons butter
• A carrot
• 2 cloves
• Salt, pepper

Chop the pork and put it in the bottom of a saucepan. Next add the onion, celery and carrot chopped. Dot with butter and over this place the meat cut into small pieces. Add any trimmings from steaks, roasts or chops that may be on hand and any bits of left over cooked meat. Season with salt and the cloves. Put over the fire without stirring. When you smell the onions getting very brown turn the meat and when everything is extremely brown add a cup of water and let it cook almost dry. Repeat this operation of adding the water three times. Finally add three pints of boiling water and let it boil gently five or six hours, when the stock will be reduced to a few cupfuls. Strain, cool and skim off the fat which will form a cake on top of the liquid.

The meat may afterwards be used for a Flam, for Polpettone or croquettes. The stock may be kept for some days and forms the basis for many dishes. In soups it is far superior to beef extract or bouillon cubes which may be substituted for it.

VEGETABLE CHOWDER
Minestrone alla Milanese

• ½ lb. salt pork
• 2 or 3 sprigs parsley
• 1 kernel garlic
• 2 carrots
• ¼ medium sized cabbage
• 1 scant cup dried beans, Lima or kidney, soaked over night
• 2 quarts cold water
• A little celery
• Any left over peas
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Rice, salt and pepper

Cut off the rind of the pork and put it into 2 quarts of water to boil. Cut off a small slice of the pork and beat it to a paste with the parsley and garlic. Add this paste to the pork and water. Slice the carrots, cut the rib out of the cabbage leaves. Add the carrots, cabbage leaves, other vegetables, seasoning and butter to the soup, and let it boil slowly for 2½ hours. The last ½ hour add 1 small handful of rice for each person.

When the pork is very soft, remove and slice in little ribbons and put it back.

This is equally good eaten cold. Three bouillon cubes may be used instead of pork, or may be added if a richer soup is desired.

Mme. Varesi.

FRENCH ONION SOUP
Minestra di Cipolla alla Francese

• 4 large onions
• 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil or meat drippings
• ¼ lb. Swiss or American brick cheese, grated
• 1 quart to 3 pints soup stock or boiling water
• 4 slices of stale bread toasted, salt, pepper

Peel the onions and slice them very thin. Fry them slowly in the fat until they are a uniform golden brown, using a kettle deep enough to hold the water afterwards. When the onions are thoroughly fried add the hot water, cover and let simmer at least three-quarters of an hour, seasoning to taste. The onions will make a clean brown liquor without the use of any meat but soup stock may be used instead of water, or beef extract or bouillon cubes may be added to the water if a meat soup is preferred.

Put the soup in a hot tureen, add the toast cut into triangles and sprinkle it over with the grated cheese. Serve as soon as the toast and cheese have been added.

PARADISE SOUP
Minestra del Paradiso

• 4 tablespoons sifted bread crumbs
• 4 tablespoons grated cheese
• 1 quart white soup stock or clear broth
• 3 eggs
• Nutmeg
• Salt, pepper

Beat the whites of the eggs, then beat in the yolks. Add the breadcrumbs gradually, then the grated cheese, a pinch of salt and a grating of nutmeg. These ingredients should form a thin batter.

Have the broth boiling and drop the batter into it by spoonfuls. Let it boil three or four minutes and serve immediately. The batter will poach in soft, curdled lumps in the clear soup.

This soup is much used as a delicacy for invalids. In this case the cheese may be scanted or omitted entirely. By way of variety a tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley may be added to the batter, or a half a cup of spinach drained and rubbed through a sieve may be substituted for half of the breadcrumbs.

When stock or broth is not available, it may be made from bouillon cubes and a lump of butter dissolved in boiling water and seasoned with celery salt, onion salt and pepper.

Signora Maria Ronchi-Cuniberti.

PEA SOUP
Zuppa di Piselli

• 1 pint peas; fresh peas, canned peas or dried peas soaked over night
• 2 tablespoons oil or butter substitute
• 1 small onion
• 1 small carrot
• A sprig of parsley
• 2 oz. ham, fat and lean
• A piece of celery
• A bay leaf
• Salt, pepper

Chop fine or put through a meat grinder the ham, onion, carrot and celery, add the parsley chopped or clipped fine with scissors, and the bay leaf. Fry all this in the oil until it is golden brown, but not at all scorched. Add one pint of boiling water and the peas. If this cooks away add more water as needed until the peas are tender. Rub the soup through a sieve. Serve this soup garnished with croutons or toast triangles, and send a dish of grated cheese to the table with it to be added according to individual taste.

BEAN SOUP
Zuppa di Fagiuoli

• 1 cup dried beans, Kidney, Navy or Lima
• ¼ cup oil
• ¼ onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 sprig of parsley
• 1 piece of celery
• 1 cup canned tomatoes

Soak the beans over night. Boil until tender. Many cooks put the beans to cook in cold water with a pinch of soda. When they come to a boil, pour off this water and add fresh.

Chop fine the onion, garlic, parsley and celery and put them to fry in the oil with salt and a generous amount of pepper. When the vegetables are a delicate brown add to them two cups of the broth from the beans, and the tomatoes. Let all come to a boil and pour the mixture into the kettle of beans from which some of the water has been drained, if they are very liquid. This soup may be served as it is or rubbed through a sieve before serving. Croutons or triangles of dry toast make an excellent addition.

QUEEN'S SOUP
Zuppa Regina

• 1 cup cooked chicken
• ¼ cup bread crumbs
• ¼ cup milk
• Yolk of 1 egg, if desired
• 5 or 6 blanched almonds
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 slice stale bread
• Fat for deep frying

Grind the meat and almonds in a meat grinder, or chop very fine. Soak the bread crumbs in the milk, and rub all these ingredients to a very smooth paste. Add the hot broth. If you wish the soup to be richer and have a more milky consistency use the yolk of an egg, which should be beaten and have a few tablespoons of the hot broth stirred into it before adding to the soup. Do not let the soup boil after the egg is added or it will curdle.

Cut the stale bread into cubes and fry in deep fat. Put these croutons in the soup, and send it to the table with a dish of grated cheese.

VEGETABLE SOUP
Zuppa SautÉ

Many kinds of vegetables may be used for this soup, carrots, celery, cabbage, turnips, onions, potatoes, spinach, the outside leaves of lettuce or greens of any variety.

Select three or four kinds of vegetables. Shred or chop coarsely cabbage or greens, and slice or cut in cubes the root vegetables. Put them over the fire with a small quantity of cooking oil or butter substitute, and let them fry until they have absorbed the fat. Then add broth and cook until the vegetables are very tender. Fry croutons of stale bread in oil and serve them in the soup.

In this, as in other recipes, water may be used instead of broth if the latter is not available, and bouillon cubes or beef extract added just as the hot soup is removed from the fire.

SOUP WITH LITTLE HATS
Cappelletti all' uso di Romagna

• Equal parts curds or cottage cheese and cooked meat (chicken, pork or veal)
• Grated cheese
• 1 egg
• Grated lemon peel
• Nutmeg, allspice, salt

Grind the meat very fine and make a highly seasoned mixture of it and all the other ingredients. The ground meat may be sautÉed in a little butter or drippings before it is mixed with the other ingredients to improve the flavor. Cut rounds measuring about three inches in diameter from a thin sheet of paste made according to the recipe on page 20. Place a spoonful of the filling in the middle of each circle of paste. Fold over and moisten the edge of the paste with the finger dipped in water to make it stay securely closed. These cappelletti should be cooked in chicken or turkey broth until the paste is tender, and served with this broth as a soup.

This is a time-honored Christmas dainty in Italy.

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Vegetables

MILANESE RICE
Risotto alla Milanese I

• 1 lb. rice
• A medium sized onion
• 4 tablespoons butter, or oil
• Salt
• Curry powder, ½ teaspoon
• Grated cheese

Chop the onion very fine, or put it through a meat grinder. Put it to cook in the butter, until it is soft and yellow. Wash the rice and add it to the onion and butter, stirring constantly so that it will not stick. Salt it and add boiling water, a little at a time, until the rice is cooked tender, yet not too soft, with each grain distinct. Dissolve the curry powder in a tablespoon of cold water and add to the rice. Take from the fire and serve very hot after mixing into it a handful of grated cheese. The delicacy of this dish is lost if it is overcooked or allowed to cool.

Signorina Irene Merlani.

RICE WITH CHICKEN GIBLETS
Risotto alla Milanese II

• 1 lb. rice
• The giblets of a chicken
• Cooking oil or chicken fat
• 1 egg
• Chicken broth
• Onion
• Grated cheese
• Salt and pepper

The broth for this Risotto may be made by cooking together the giblets, neck and tips of wings of a chicken which is to be roasted, or it may be made from the remnants of roast fowl.

Boil the rice until it is about half done in salted water. Then let the water cook away and begin adding the broth, in such quantity that the rice will be nearly dry when it is tender. Fry the chopped onion in the oil or fat. Some mushrooms cut up small are a very good addition to this "soffritto." Mince the chicken giblets and add to the onion. Stir this mixture into the rice. Add grated cheese and a beaten egg just as the rice is taken from the fire.

RICE AND PEAS
Risotto coi Piselli

• 1 cup rice
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• ½ onion
• Grated cheese
• A small can of peas

Clean the rice. Chop the onion fine and fry it a golden color in the oil. Put in the rice and stir it until it has absorbed all the oil. Salt and add boiling water. Boil until the rice is tender, taking care to keep plenty of water on it until the very end when it should cook almost dry. Drain the peas and add them toward the end of the cooking. Grated cheese is a good addition to this dish.

STRING BEANS WITH EGG SAUCE
Fagiuolini in Salsa d'Uovo

• 1 lb. green or wax beans
• Butter, salt and pepper
• Yolk of 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch or flour
• Juice of ¼ lemon
• ¾ cup soup stock

String the beans and parboil them in salted, boiling water. Drain, cut up into inch pieces and season with butter, salt and pepper. Beat the egg yolk in a sauce pan. Beat in the flour and lemon juice, add the stock (cold water will do) and cook the mixture over a moderate fire until it thickens. Pour over the hot beans and let remain over the fire a moment so that they will absorb the flavor of the sauce but not long enough to curdle the egg.

FRIED CELERY
Sedano Fritto

Cut the outside stalks of celery into pieces 3 to 4 inches long, and strip off the coarsest fibres. Cook in water until soft and transparent. Drain in colander. When it is as dry as possible roll each piece separately in flour, and sautÉ separately, not in a mass, in butter, vegetable oil or drippings, with salt and pepper. Each piece must be turned to cook on both sides.

Swiss chard may be cooked in the same way.

Mme. Varesi.

BOILED CELERY
Sedano per Contorno

Cook the outside stalks of celery, cut into small pieces, in boiling salted water for 5 minutes. Drain and sautÉ in a very little butter. Add a few tablespoons of brown stock and simmer until tender. Sprinkle with grated cheese if desired, before serving.

BOILED CAULIFLOWER
Cavolfiore in Umido

• A small strip of salt pork
• ¼ onion
• 1 tablespoon butter or oil
• A large cauliflower
• Tomato paste[1]
• Salt, pepper, allspice
• A little sausage meat
• Grated cheese

Chop fine the onion and salt pork, and brown together, adding the butter and spices. Add enough tomato paste and boiling water to moisten the mixture thoroughly, and let it boil a few minutes. Then add the finely chopped sausage and more water as necessary to keep it boiling.

Wash and quarter the cauliflower and cook it for ten minutes in boiling, slightly salted water. Drain it and add it to the sauce, and simmer slowly until tender. Be careful not to cook it so long that it gets mushy. Grated cheese may be sprinkled over it before serving.

Cabbage may be cooked in the same way.

Signorina Irene Merlani.

[1]

See Suggestions, page 5.

VEGETABLES ALLA NAPOLITANA
Giambotto alla Napolitana

• ¼ onion
• An eggplant
• A few tablespoons oil
• Fresh or canned tomatoes
• Two or three green peppers
• One or two potatoes
• Salt, pepper
• Zucchini

Zucchini are a kind of small squash for sale in groceries and markets of the Italian neighborhoods of our large cities. Summer or winter squash, ripe cucumber or even pumpkin make good substitutes.

Chop the onion and fry in oil. The other vegetables should be in proportion to each other. For example, if there is a cupful of each of the other vegetables when they are cut up, use a cupful of tomatoes unless you wish the tomato flavor to be very pronounced. Peel and cube the potatoes, eggplant and squash. Remove the seeds and stems from the peppers and slice or shred them coarsely. Add the tomatoes to the onion and oil. After that has cooked a few minutes add the potatoes. When they are half done, put in the peppers, lastly the eggplant, squash, and salt and pepper. Continue cooking until the vegetables are tender but still whole and firm.

Roma Pavilion Restaurant, Chicago.

EGGPLANT WITH TOMATO SAUCE
Melanzana in Umido

Peel and cut up the eggplant. Salt it and let it stand for an hour or so to draw out the bitter juices. Drain and sautÉ in a little oil or drippings. Add tomato sauce[2] and simmer a few moments until tender.

[2]

See page 23.

BAKED EGGPLANT WITH CHEESE
Tortino di Melanzana alla Parmigiana

The eggplant should be prepared as for ordinary frying, that is, it should be peeled, sliced and the slices sprinkled with salt and left under a weighted plate for some time to extract the bitter juices. SautÉ the slices in oil or lard. Line a baking dish with them. Fill the center of the dish with hard boiled eggs and cheese cut into little pieces. Add to this filling enough grated cheese and tomato sauce to flavor it to taste. Cover the top with another layer of the fried eggplant and a little more tomato sauce. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Roma Pavilion Restaurant, Chicago.

POTATOES "STUFATO"
Stufato di Patate

• 2 lbs. potatoes
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 pint milk
• Grated cheese
• Salt, pepper

Peel the potatoes and cut them into little pieces. Cook in boiling water for ten minutes. Take them out, drain thoroughly, and put in a saucepan, sprinkling them with flour, then adding the butter and milk. Cover the pan and let the potatoes cook slowly for a quarter of an hour or until thoroughly done. Season well with salt and pepper and a generous amount of grated cheese before serving.

Signorina Irene Merlani.

MOULD OF PEAS OR BEANS
Sformato di Fagiuolini o Piselli

• 1 lb. green or wax beans
• ¼ onion
• A sprig of parsley
• A piece of celery
• 2 tablespoons oil or butter substitute
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• Grated cheese

String the beans. Blanch them by throwing them into boiling water. As soon as the water has boiled again drain the beans and plunge them into cold water. Fry the finely chopped onion, parsley and celery in a tablespoon of oil. When the onion is a golden color add the beans and let them absorb the oil. Add just enough water to keep them from burning until the beans have simmered tender.

Make a white sauce of the milk, flour and one tablespoon of oil. Beat the eggs. Let the beans and sauce cool a little. Then add the eggs, beans and a few tablespoons of grated cheese to the white sauce. Pour into a buttered mould. Bake or steam as a custard until firm, and serve hot.

Peas are good cooked in the same way. Canned peas and beans may be used. This makes a very satisfactory luncheon dish.

MOULD OF SPINACH
Stampa di Spinaci

• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 cups boiled spinach
• 3 eggs
• Brown stock
• Salt, pepper

Make a smooth white sauce of the milk, butter and flour. Let it cook until it is thick and the flour is thoroughly cooked. Add to the sauce the spinach (drained, rinsed and chopped very fine) a few tablespoons of grated cheese, two eggs beaten, a few tablespoons of brown stock (or a bouillon cube dissolved in a little hot water) and salt. Mix thoroughly and pour into a buttered mould. Steam as a custard until it is firm. Brown stock or tomato sauce may be poured over this, but it is excellent served hot just as it is. For the recipes for Brown Stock and Tomato Sauce see pages 7 and 23.

Pensione Santa Caterina, Siena.

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Eggs

EGGS ALL' AURORA

• 1 tablespoon butter or vegetable oil
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 3 eggs
• Salt and pepper

Hard boil the eggs. Make a white sauce of the flour, milk and butter. Be sure to cook it thoroughly. Add the whites of the eggs diced very fine. Pour this out on a platter and cover with the yolks forced through a sieve or potato ricer.

Pensione Santa Caterina, Siena.

TOMATOES WITH EGGS

• 5 or 6 ripe tomatoes of equal size
• 5 or 6 eggs
• White sauce or brown gravy

Peel the tomatoes. Cut a slice from the top of each, and scoop out the core. Break a raw egg into each and replace the top. Put in a baking dish and bake until the eggs are set. Serve with a cream sauce or brown gravy.

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Corn Meal Dishes

CORN MEAL LOAF
Pasticcio di Polenta

• Yellow cornmeal
• Dried mushrooms[3]
• Parmesan cheese[3]
• Butter
• Cream
• Salt

The day before this dish is to be served, cook cornmeal very thoroughly with only enough water to make it very stiff. Turn out to cool in just the shape of the dish in which it has cooked.

Next day take this same dish, butter it and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Cut the mould of cornmeal in horizontal slices about ¼ inch thick. Lay the top slice in the bottom of the dish where it fits. Dot with two or three small pieces of butter and three or four dried mushrooms which have had boiling water poured over them and soaked some time. Moisten with cream and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. Repeat slice by slice until the shape is complete. On the last slice put only two dots of butter.

Put in a moderate oven and bake three hours. If at the end of this time there should be too much liquid on top pour this off to use for the seasoning of some other dish, such as spaghetti, rice or noodles, and continue cooking until the liquid ceases to ooze.

[3]

See Suggestions, page 5.

POLENTA PIE
Polenta Pasticciata

• 1 cup yellow corn meal
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• Grated cheese
• Bolognese Sauce[4]
• Salt
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil or butter

Make a very stiff mush of the cornmeal. Salt it well and when it is cooked spread it out to cool on a bread board in a sheet about an inch thick. Make a smooth white sauce of the milk, cornstarch and butter. Prepare the Bolognese Sauce according to its recipe. When the cornmeal is cold slice it down in half inch slices and cut into diamonds or squares. Butter a baking dish. Put in a layer of the cornmeal, sprinkle it with cheese and a few tablespoons each of the white sauce and the meat sauce. Repeat until the dish is full. Bake until the top is nicely browned. This seems like an elaborate dish, but it is very delicious and a meal in itself.

[4]

See page 23.

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Spaghetti and Other Pastas

GNOCCHI OF FARINA OR CORNMEAL
Gnocchi alla Romana

• 1 pint of milk, or half milk and half water
• ½ cup farina or cornmeal
• Butter and grated cheese
• 1 egg
• Salt

Let the milk come to a boil, salt it and add the farina gradually, stirring constantly so it will not become lumpy. Take from the fire and add a tablespoon of butter and several tablespoons of grated cheese, also the egg slightly beaten. Mix well and spread out on a moulding board in a sheet about ¾ inch thick. When it is cold cut it in squares or diamonds. Put a layer of these on a shallow baking dish or platter that has been buttered. Sprinkle with cheese and dot with butter. Make another layer and so on until the dish is filled. Bake in the oven until the crust is well browned.

SPAGHETTI WITH ANCHOVIES

• ¾ lb. spaghetti
• 5 medium sized anchovies[5]
• Olive oil
• Canned tomatoes

Put the anchovies into a colander and dip quickly into boiling water to loosen the skins, and remove the salt. Skin and bone them. Chop them and put over the fire in a sauce-pan with a generous quantity of oil and some pepper. Do not let them boil, but when they are hot add two tablespoons of butter and three or four tablespoons of concentrated tomato juice made by cooking down canned tomatoes and rubbing through a sieve. Boil the spaghetti in water that is only slightly salted and take care not to let it become too soft. Drain thoroughly and put it into the hot dish in which it is to be served. Pour the sauce over the spaghetti, and if you have left the latter unbroken in the Italian style mix by lifting the spaghetti with two silver forks until sauce has gone all through it. Serve with grated cheese.

[5]

See Suggestions, page 5.

SPAGHETTI ALLA NAPOLITANA

• ½ lb. round steak
• ¼ lb. salt pork or bacon
• 1 small onion
• A clove of garlic
• 1 tablespoon butter or substitute
• A few dried mushrooms, if desired
• Several sprigs parsley
• Fresh or canned tomatoes

Grind the salt pork and try it out in a saucepan. While it is frying put the onion through the grinder. As soon as the pork begins to brown add the onion, the parsley chopped, the garlic shredded fine, and the mushrooms which have been softened by soaking in warm water. When the vegetables are very brown (great care must be taken not to burn the onion, which scorches very easily) add the meat ground coarsely or cut up in little cubes. When the meat is a good brown color, add about one pint of tomatoes and simmer slowly until all has cooked down to a thick creamy sauce. It will probably take ¾ hour. The sauce may be bound together with a little flour if it shows a tendency to separate.

This sauce is used to dress all kinds of macaroni and spaghetti, also for boiled rice. Spaghetti should be left unbroken when it is cooked. If it is too long to fit in the kettle immerse one end in the boiling salted water and in a very few minutes the ends of the spaghetti under the water will become softened so that the rest can be pushed down into the kettle. Be careful not to overcook it and it will not be pasty, but firm and tender. Drain it carefully and put in a hot soup tureen. Sprinkle a handful of grated cheese over it and pour on the sauce. Lift with two forks until thoroughly mixed.

NOODLES OR HOME MADE PASTE
Tagliatelli o Pasta Fatta in Casa

The best and most tender paste is made simply of eggs and flour and salt. Water may be substituted for part of the eggs, for economy, or when a less rich paste is needed. Allow about a cup of flour to an egg. Put the flour on a bread board, make a hole in the middle and break in the egg. Use any extra whites that are on hand. Work it with a fork until it is firm enough to work with the hands. Knead it thoroughly, adding more flour if necessary, until you have a paste you can roll out. Roll it as thin as a ten cent piece. If the sheet of paste is too large to handle with an ordinary rolling pin, a broom handle which has been sawed off, scrubbed and sandpapered, will serve in lieu of the long Italian rolling pin.

This paste may be cut in ribbons to be cooked in soup as Tagliatelli, or cut in squares or circles and filled with various mixtures to make Cappelletti, Ravioli, etc.

Any bits that are left or become too dry to work may be made into a ball and kept for some time to be grated into soup, in which it makes an excellent thickening.

RAVIOLI

• ¼ lb. curds or soft cottage cheese
• ½ cup cooked spinach or beet greens
• 1 egg
• Nutmeg
• Salt
• Grated cheese

Drain and chop the greens. Mix well with the curds, egg, a little grated cheese, salt and nutmeg. Make a paste such as that described in the recipe for Pasta fatta in Casa, page 20. Roll out this paste very thin and mark it off in two or three inch squares. Place a spoonful of the mixture on each square. Fold together diagonally. Moisten the edges with the finger dipped in cold water, to make them stick together, and press them down with the fingers or the tines of a fork. Another method is to put the spoonfuls of the mixture in a row two inches from the edge of the paste and two inches apart. Fold over the edge of the paste. Cut off the whole strip thus formed, and cut into squares with the mixture in the middle of each square.

Boil these ravioli in salted water, being careful not to break them open. Drain and serve with a tomato sauce containing mushrooms[6], either fresh ones, or the dried mushrooms soaked and simmered until tender. Arrange the ravioli on a platter, pour the hot sauce over them and finish with a sprinkling of grated cheese.

[6]

See page 23.

RAVIOLI WITH MEAT
Ravioli alla Genovese

• 1 cup cooked meat, veal, chicken, turkey or giblets
• 1 small slice cooked ham
• ½ cup spinach
• 1 egg
• Grated cheese, nutmeg, salt

Chop the meat and spinach fine and work to a stiff mixture with the egg. Season with cheese, nutmeg and salt to taste. Enclose in little squares of the home made paste described above, and cook and serve as in the preceding recipe for Ravioli.

NOODLES WITH HAM
Tagliatelle col Presciutto

• Noodles
• A slice of ham, fat & lean
• Oil or butter
• Carrot
• Celery
• Tomato paste[7]

Cut the ham into little pieces. Chop carrot and celery to equal the ham in quantity. Put them all on the fire with some butter. When the mixture is brown add a few tablespoons of tomato paste dissolved in a cup of hot water.

Cook the noodles in water that is only slightly salted. Drain and dress with the sauce and grated cheese. The quantities to use in the sauce must be determined by the amount of noodles to be cooked.

[7]

See Suggestions, page 5.

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Sauces

BOLOGNESE SAUCE FOR MACARONI
Maccheroni alla Bolognese

• ¼ lb. raw round steak
• A slice of salt pork or bacon (2 oz.)
• 1 tablespoon butter or substitute
• 1 pint hot water or broth
• 1 small carrot
• ¼ onion
• 1 large piece celery
• ½ tablespoon flour
• Pepper, nutmeg if desired

Chop the meat and vegetables fine and put them over the fire with the butter. When the meat has browned add the flour and wet the mixture with hot water or broth, allowing it to simmer from half an hour to an hour. It is done when it is the consistency of a thick gravy.

This is enough sauce for 1 lb. of macaroni or spaghetti. Dried mushrooms are a good addition to this sauce. They may be soaked, drained and chopped with other vegetables. This sauce forms the basis for the dish of scalloped cornmeal called Polenta Pasticciata.

TOMATO SAUCE
Salsa di Pomidoro

Pellegrino Artusi, the inimitable author of that droll yet practical manual of cooking SCIENCE IN THE KITCHEN AND THE ART OF EATING WELL (La Scienza in Cucina e l'Arte di mangiar bene) has the following to say about tomato sauce.

"There was once a good old priest in a village of the Romagna who stuck his nose into everything; in every family circle and in every domestic affair he wanted to have his finger in the pie. Aside from this he was a kindly old party and as his zeal was the source of more good than bad people let him go his way; but the wiseacres dubbed him Don Pomidoro (Sir Tomato) to indicate that tomatoes enter into everything; therefore a good tomato sauce is an invaluable aid in cooking."