The European cookbook for American homes (from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France)

Spaghetti table manners are no better than corn-on-the-cob tactics, or maneuvers with a juicy mango, which really should be eaten in the bath tub. Emily Post would be horrified to see how spaghetti is gargled, guzzled and goozled according to the etiquette of each Italian province. The trick is indeed, to keep stray ravellings of it from slipping down the corsage or into the shoe. Some wrap it around a dessert spoon or whirl it fast around a fork, pop it into the mouth and bite it off. Others make a game of it, like diabolo, or they catch the end of one starchy string and englut it endlessly, like a cat playing with a spool of thread. Only Anglo-Saxons either break it to awkward bits or chop it off in short mouthfuls with knife and fork. Caruso was one of the neatest spaghetti eaters we ever saw, and today a brand of his favorite paste is named in his honor. Members of Italian opera companies are always half-starved during the performance, since it is necessary to sing on an empty stomach. But they make up for this after the show by holding back-stage banquets, and spaghetti is often the piece de resistance. We saw Caruso at one of these feasts in Chicago, in the early years of this century. He just dipped informally into the main dish, snagged out a hank of spaghetti highly colored with tomato gravy, lifted it dripping the whole arm's length above his head and let it glide luxuriously down his musical throat. MACARONI, VERMICELLI, TAGLIARINI, AND OTHER PASTES The cooking time varies from 5 minutes for the hair-like vermicelli, to a half hour for the thickest of the macaronis. They can be served like spaghetti; can be added to soups; or special dishes can be made with them from the following suggestions: BAKED MACARONI In a buttered baking dish alternate layers of cooked macaroni with layers of minced meat in plenty of gravy; fowl, veal, beef, or ham, all well seasoned; or chopped stewed mushrooms in a tasty sauce of their own liquor, thickened slightly. Cauliflower flowerettes in plenty of thin cream sauce made yellow with butter and flavored with grated Parmesan cheese can be used instead of the meat ragouts; creamed onions can be used in the same way; always remembering that macaroni will absorb a great deal of liquid, and the finished dish must be moist. Or, seasoned tomatoes in thin slices may be laid between the layers of macaroni, when the dish must be filled with tomato sauce. Or, simply, slices of yellow cheese may alternate with the macaroni layers, when the dish is filled with milk. Always finish with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, a sprinkling of bread crumbs, and dots of butter. Bake until nicely brown. ' VERMICELLI Vermicelli combines happily with fish. Serve cooked vermicelli like spaghetti with anchovies (see recipe). Or, combine minced fish and minced olives with tomato sauce, and prepare and cook like baked macaroni. Tinned tunny, or poached and boned smelts are often used in this way in Italy. J TAGLIARINI These Italian noodles are best prepared like spaghetti al burro (see recipe).