Timbale Milanaise

Line a mould with the short crust as described above, and have ready some just boiled macaroni, enough to about quarter fill the pie; now put it back into a pan with some good meat gravy or stock, one part Parmesan to three parts Gruyere cheese, and as much butter as you have cheese, then lay into this mixture some poultry livers, bits of game or poultry, pieces of ham, etc. (you really can put in pretty much what you please), and let it all simmer together very gently forty to forty-five minutes. Now dot some morsels of butter over the bottom of the paste-lined timbale, sprinkle this with grated cheese and a little pepper, and then lay in the mixture you have been cooking, cutting the macaroni into 1½in. lengths and dusting each layer lightly with cheese, pour over it any gravy you may have left, cover over with more paste, pinching the edges well together, and bake for half an hour. Then turn out and serve plain or with rich gravy. This dish may be varied almost indefinitely. For instance, T. a la Napolitaine, when tomato sauce diluted with gravy is used instead of pure gravy, and stewed beef cut into neat pieces, cubes of fat and lean bacon, and herb-farce meat balls are stirred into the macaroni, the whole being finished off as before; T. alla romana, when tiny sausages, the breasts of any little birds, cooked brains, etc., are all mixed into the gravy-steeped macaroni, and the whole is again finished off as before.

Another form of filling is with raviolis; for this you need nouille paste made with ½lb. fine flour, half a teaspoonful of salt, the yolks of four raw eggs, and sufficient milk or water to bring it all to a stiff paste; roll this out very thin, then cut it into oblongs about 2in. or 3in. long by lin. to l½in. wide; put into each of these a spoonful of finely minced meat, raw or cooked, rather highly seasoned with herbs, etc., and moistened with a little gravy, or tomato sauce, and fold the raviolis over into a square, pinching the ends well together, after which you drop them into fast boiling salted water, and simmer for thirty minutes. Lift them out with a skimmer, and drain well. Have ready the paste-lined timbale and pack it as before with the raviolis, a good dust of black pepper and grated cheese, and enough thick tomato sauce to fill up the interstices, and bake as before.

Polenta Timbale

Prepare the polenta by dropping handfuls of Indian corn meal gradually into a saucepanful of boiling salted water, stirring it steadily till the flour is thoroughly cooked and the polenta becomes like porridge. It must be remembered that the meal takes up a great deal of water, a pint of liquid to a not over-large handful of meal is about the right proportion. Butter and grated cheese may be added in the making, and certainly add to the flavour of the polenta. The butter should be put into the boiling water at the first, but the cheese is sprinkled in as you stir the mixture. When this polenta is very thick and stiff turn it out on to a dish or slab and let it become quite cold, when it will be of about the thickness of a stiff cornflour shape. Cut this polenta out into long fingers the depth of the timbale mould, butter the latter well, lay in the bottom a round of polenta about ¼in. thick, then arrange the fingers all round, just as you would line a Charlotte russe. Now fill up the centre with grated cheese (Parmesan), pieces of the polenta, slices of Gruyere cheese, balls of forcemeat, or little cakes of sausage meat, shredded ham or any meat, cooked poultry livers, and red pepper, with pepper and salt to taste, some pieces of butter, and a very little stock from the stock pot; cover with another disc of the polenta, and bake for an hour.

This may be made in just the same way with macaroni. (These dishes lend themselves most successfully to a vegetarian style, tomato sauce or vegetable stock replacing the meat sauces, whilst mushrooms, artichoke bottoms, etc., can be used instead of the meat itself.)