Timbale of Macaroni Italian Pasta Recipe

Timbale is an Italian holiday baked pasta dome. It is a creamy dish of meat, fish, cheese or vegetables baked in a drum-shaped pastry mold.

INGREDIENTS:
A small piece of ham fat
1/2 onion
piece of celery
parsley
a small piece of carrot
2 or 3 mushrooms
2 tablespoons tomato paste
5 tablespoons hot water
1/2 lb macaroni
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter
bread crumbs

PREPARATION:

1. Chop up fine together a small piece of ham fat, one-half of onion, piece of celery, small piece of carrot and parsley. Fry in a saucepan.
2. Chop fine two or three mushrooms. When the vegetables are fried add chopped mushrooms. Fry for five more minutes.
3. Thin two tablespoons of tomato paste with five tablespoons of hot water (or take equal quantity of tomato sauce without water) and add to the vegetables. Cook until vegetables are cooked through.
4. When the sauce is finished, take out the mushrooms and put them on one side.
5. Boil one-half pound of macaroni in salted water for fifteen minutes. Drain, and combine with the sauce described above.
6. Add two tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese, and one tablespoon of butter.
7. Butter well a mold. Cover the bottom and sides of it with a thin layer of bread crumbs.
8. Pour into the mold one-half the macaroni. Place on it a layer of mushrooms. Then add the other half of the macaroni, followed by another thin layer of bread crumbs.
9. Place the mold into the oven without turning it over. Bake in a slow oven until well browned. Turn out and serve.

For variety, you can add to this timbale any kind of cold meat cut up fine. Also, one hard-boiled egg cut into four pieces may be added to the sauce. Add the egg, and meat which you have taken out from the sauce, to the timbale in the same way that you added the mushrooms.

In Italy, timbales were traditionally the highlight of the meal. They were dome or beehive shaped pastries filled with a custardlike mixture of pasta, sauce, meat and vegetables. In some cases timbales can be made of all sorts of things like lasagna sheets, shortcrust pastry and even risotto. A lot of them have a layered filling instead of a casserole-type filling.
Timbales are always time-consuming, therefore they are not for beginners. When making timbale, be sure to pay attention to the strength of your shell as well as to the stiffness of the filling.

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