No. 186. Tagliarelle and Lobster

Ingredients: Tagliarelle, lobster, cheese, butter.

Boil half a pound of tagliarelle, and cut up a quarter of a pound of lobster. Butter a fire-proof dish, and strew it well with grated Parmesan and Cheddar mixed, then put in the tagliarelle and lobster in layers, and between each layer add a little butter. Strew grated cheese over the top, put it in the oven for twenty minutes, and brown the top with a salamander.

No. 187. Polenta

Polenta is made of ground Indian-corn, and may be used either as a separate dish or as a garnish for roast meat, pigeons, fowl, etc. It is made like porridge; gradually drop the meal with one hand into boiling stock or water, and stir continually with a wooden spoon with the other hand. In about a quarter of an hour it will be quite thick and smooth, then add a little butter and grated Parmesan, and one egg beaten up. Let it get cold, then put it in layers in a baking-dish, add a little butter to each layer, sprinkle with plenty of Parmesan, and bake it for about an hour in a slow oven. Serve hot.

No. 188. Polenta Pasticciata

Ingredients: Polenta, butter, cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes.

Prepare a good polenta as above, put it in layers in a fire-proof dish, and add by degrees one and a half ounces of melted butter, two cooked mushrooms cut up, and two tablespoonsful of grated cheese. (If you like, you may add a good-sized tomato mashed up.) Put the dish in the oven, and before serving brown it over with a salamander.

No. 189. Battuffoli

Ingredients: Polenta, onion, butter, salt, stock, Parmesan.

Make a somewhat firm polenta (No. 187) with half a pound of ground maize and a pint and a half of salted water, add a small onion cut up and fried in butter, and stir the polenta until it is sufficiently cooked. Then take it off the fire and arrange it by spoonsful in a large fire-proof dish, and give each spoonful the shape and size of an egg. Place them one against the other, and when the first layer is done, pour over it some very good gravy or stock, and plenty of grated Parmesan. Arrange it thus layer by layer. Put it into the oven for twenty minutes, and serve very hot.

No. 199. Frittata di Riso (Savoury Rice Pancake)

Ingredients: Rice, milk, salt, butter, cinnamon, eggs, Parmesan.

Boil quarter of a pound of rice in milk until it is quite soft and pulpy, drain off the milk and add to the rice an ounce of butter, two tablespoonsful of grated Parmesan, and a pinch of cinnamon, and when it has got rather cold, the yolks of four eggs beaten up. Mix all well together, and with this make a pancake with butter in a frying-pan.