We have already made numerous references to pasta as one of the most expanded worldwide Mediterranean culinary delights and at the same time the most regional. It is precisely this duality lies the difficulty of finding its origin in one culture or another, but that is not our purpose. Having ruled out several explanations that attributed the introduction of spaghetti or noodles to Marco Polo as a result of one of his trips to Chine, it seems wise to mention the involvement of Arabs who in turn participated in the expansion of this product throughout the Mediterranean. But undoubtedly, one of the most authoritative versions on the origin of pasta is the one located in the northern Mediterranean basin, where Etruscans, Greeks, Romans and later Italians have a long list of relations to this beloved food. It is said that when the Greeks founded Naples, the natives already made a flour mixture that they called \u201cmakaria\u201d or \u201cmakarios\u201d. It is also said that the Roman emperor Cicero was an avowed lover of the \u201claganum\u201d, long strips of pasta later made popular by the famous chef Apicius. It is most probable that pasta was on the top of the agenda in classical cuisine, since they were all based on an abundant supply of grain consumption, which led to all kinds of clever recipes and preparations. One of the most typical examples of originality and good taste can be found in this week\u2019s recipe.<\/p>\n
4 servings<\/p>\n
240 g macaroni
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t500 g ground beef or lamb
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1 medium onion
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t2 medium tomatoes
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t2 tbsp tomato sauce
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t50 g grated Parmesan cheese
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t3 eggs
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t2 tbsp bread crumbs
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t3 tbsp olive oil
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1 pinch of nutmeg
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t pepper
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t salt
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t125 ml water<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t50 g butter
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t50 g flour
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t1 liter milk
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t a pinch of nutmeg
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t pepper
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t salt\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Peel and chop the onion. Make cross cuts at the base of each tomato, scald for 2 minutes in a saucepan of boiling water, peel and chop.
\nSaut\u00e9 the onion over low heat in a skillet with olive oil for 8 minutes. Add the tomato and ground beef and cook for 5 more minutes. After this time, add the tomato sauce, salt and pepper and cover with 125ml of water.
\nCover the skillet and cook over low heat for 30 minutes.
\nCook the macaroni for 8 minutes with a saucepan with plenty of boiling salted water. Drain and toss with the prepared sauce and half the grated parmesan cheese.
\nBeat the eggs with a pinch of salt and nutmeg. Toss with the b\u00e9chamel sauce and set aside. Preheat oven to 220\u00baC. Sprinkle a deep baking dish with bread crumbs and pour in the macaroni mixture. Top with b\u00e9chamel sauce and sprinkle over it the remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake at 200\u00baC for 30 minutes, until it is golden. Serve immediately.<\/p>\n
To prepare the b\u00e9chamel sauce, melt the 50g butter in a pan and add 50g flour. Brown slightly over low heat and slowly add 1 litre of hot milk, stirring constantly. Let cook over low heat for 5 minutes, stirring and season with a pinch of salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","recipe_category":[],"class_list":["post-1360","cp_recipe","type-cp_recipe","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietamediterranea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cooked_recipe\/1360\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietamediterranea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cooked_recipe\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietamediterranea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cp_recipe\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietamediterranea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietamediterranea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=1360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietamediterranea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1353\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dietamediterranea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=1360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cp_recipe_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dietamediterranea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/recipe_category\/?post=1360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}