Tag: macaroni

Pasta Salad

My mother loved macaroni salad.  Her friends did too.  I think that they got a lot of ideas from the Woman’s Day magazines they picked up at the A & P.  In any case, macaroni salad gave them an outlet for their creativity.  New varieties appeared like mushrooms after a warm rain at every church potluck, school picnic or family get together that I can remember from my childhood.

There was plain macaroni salad (just macaroni with mayonnaise or salad dressing, salt and pepper); Mom added celery and onions to hers and spiced up the dressing with some mustard; some of her friends added cheddar cheese cubes, red or green peppers, and carrots; and the more adventurous stirred in chunks of canned tuna or cubes of Spam or summer sausage.
 
Mom liked macaroni salads, her friends liked them, even my father liked them, except for the ones with cheese in them.  I don’t remember if my sisters liked them, but even if they didn’t they probably ate them just to make me look bad because they knew I hated macaroni salad, even the one with apples and grapes that a white-haired lady once assured me tasted just like dessert as she ignored my request for only a small spoonful.  

But as the Apostle Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.”   When I was in high school, my friend Eddie’s Italian grandfather showed me how he made his own macaroni and introduced me to the wonderful world of pasta.  I was hooked.
 
Today I really like pasta salads, even the ones with macaroni, mayonnaise, apples and grapes, so maybe I should thank my parents for making sure that I ate at least a small serving of whatever was put before me.
 
Here is a simple pasta salad that encourages creativity.  If you follow the quantities suggested, you will have a good pasta salad:  if you adjust ingredients to your taste you may end up with a great salad.  Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Most of the vegetables should be sliced into thin small pieces.  Quarter the carrot and slice the celery stick in half lengthwise before slicing them crosswise.  I like to cut the green pepper and red onion into slightly larger pieces (about 1/4” to 1/2” square) because this provides a little more contrast for color and texture.

INGREDIENTS:

12 ounces rotini
1 tsp. salt
1 rib of celery
3 or 4 green onions
3 T red onion
1/4 sweet green pepper
1 carrot
1 hot red or yellow pepper (or one of each) minced
12 to 15 pimiento-stuffed green olives
3 to 4 T olive oil
1 to 2 T fresh lemon juice
1 to 2 T wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. celery salt
1/2 to 1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. thyme
Salt to taste

PROCEDURE:

Heat three to four quarts water in a large pot.  While the water is heating, chop the vegetables.  When the water begins boiling, add one teaspoon salt and the rotini.  Add the rotini gradually so as not to cool the water too much.  Stir the rotini two or three times while it cooks to keep it from sticking to the pot or clumping together.  You can finish chopping vegetables while the rotini cooks.  After eight or nine minutes, use a fork to remove a rotini and test for doneness.  It will be done when the starch taste of uncooked flour is gone, but when it offers a slight resistance when you bite through it.  The Italians call this “al dente.”

When the pasta is done, drain it thoroughly and put it in a mixing bowl.  Add about four tablespoons of olive oil and the vegetables to the hot pasta.  Toss to mix thoroughly.  Add the lemon juice, vinegar and spices.  Toss again.  Let sit for three or four minutes, taste and adjust flavor. You can serve this salad warm, but it improves if allowed to sit for an hour or two while the flavors blend and is delicious chilled and served the next day.
 
SUBSTITUTIONS:

Use reconstituted lemon juice for fresh.
Use several dashes of Tabasco sauce if you don’t have hot peppers. Omit either the green or red onion, but adjust the total quantity to taste.

OPTIONAL ADDITIONS:

When the pasta salad is cool, you can add about a quarter cup of diced sharp cheddar cheese or hard sausage like pepperoni or salami.  This salad is a lot like a soup:  Use what you have and adjust the ingredients to create a salad that pleases you and your guests.

Gus Gauch’s Macaroni and Cheese

Gus Gauch was a farmer who lived down the road from us in the country.  He was also one of the two best fly fishermen on the Namekagon River north of Hayward.  

When I was eight years old, Gus talked my mother into letting him teach me how to fly fish for trout.  She was afraid that her firstborn might not make it home from the river, and if she had seen me starting to float away in my brand new plastic waders that first day, my trout fishing career would have ended pretty quickly.  However, Gus was there to catch me as I was about to tip over, and we never told her about it.  

I learned a lot of things from Gus, one of which was not to tell your mother everything.  Another was his recipe for macaroni and cheese.  The first time I had it was in late winter when Gus asked me to come over after supper so we could tie some flies.  When I got there he was still eating.  He asked me if I wanted some macaroni and cheese, and since I hadn’t had anything to eat for fifteen minutes I said yes.  

It wasn’t like my mother’s macaroni and cheese but I loved it.  Unlike most macaroni and cheese recipes, this one does not use a white sauce into which you melt the cheese.  Instead, you layer the cooked macaroni, shredded cheese and buttered bread crumbs in a baking dish and heat it briefly in the oven.  It is extremely simple and easy to make, has no trans fats, is lower in calories than ordinary mac and cheese and is just plain delicious. 

   

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups uncooked macaroni

4 – 5 T butter

8 ounces medium cheddar cheese

3 or 4 slices dry bread or buns to make 1 cup of bread crumbs

Salt and pepper to taste

Water

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 300º and bring two quarts of water to boiling.

While the water is heating, shred the cheese and set it aside.  When the water reaches a full boil, stir in the macaroni and cook nine or ten minutes; I always add a half teaspoon of salt to the boiling water, but suit yourself. Drain but do not rinse so the pasta will be hot when you assemble the dish.

  

While the macaroni is cooking, crush three or four slices of dry bread to make about one cup of bread crumbs.  Do not try to turn the crumbs into a powder.  Leave some pieces a quarter in diameter or so to provide a little variety in appearance.  Melt four tablespoons of butter in a small frying pan on low heat.  When the butter is melted, add the bread crumbs and toast slightly stirring with a fork until the crumbs are mixed with the butter.  Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.  I use about a fourth teaspoon each of salt and pepper.  If the crumbs seem too dry, add a little more butter.

Butter an ovenproof eight by twelve-inch glass baking dish.  Put a thin layer (a scant half inch) of macaroni into the dish, sprinkle about one-third of the cheese evenly over the macaroni.  Repeat with two more layers.  Spread bread crumbs over the top and put the uncovered dish in the hot oven.  Heat about fifteen minutes until the cheese is melted.

And that’s it! 

NOTES:  You can use mild or sharp cheddar cheese for a different flavor.  And if you want to be fancy, grate an extra tablespoon of cheese on top of the crumbs.  If you don’t have any dry bread, toast four slices and cut them into small cubes. Hot dog or hamburger buns you have dried in the oven work very well also.