FARINACEOUS FOOD

truffles, and cockscombs, previously cooked. Fill up the shape with all these things judiciously arranged, the maccaroni predominating, then add a due quantity of the sauce of the ran and grated Parmesan cheese. Cover the whole with a disc of crust, and bake it in a quick oven just long enough to cook the crust. This pie may be eaten hot or cold.

A very nice simple pudding may be made of maccaroni as follows : Boil some spaghetti or fidelini in milk with some sugar, and let them be very much overdone ; strain, and add to them the yolks of three or more eggs, accord- ing to quantity ; put in a little powdered cinnamon, mix well, and pour into a shape, previously buttered and bread-crumbed ; then bake, in a quick oven, just long enough to colour the outside.

Semolina, and a coarser sort called semola, are prepared from the same kind of wheat as is maccaroni, and are in effect very much the same thing excepting that they are coarsely ground into a kind of meal instead of being wrought into fanciful shapes. Homely puddings and a sort of porridge can be made with them, either in conjunc- tion with milk or stock.

Indian corn ( granone ) is grown extensively in Italy, where it is used, unground, to fatten poultry and pigs, and when made into flour it forms an article of daily food for people of all classes. It is cooked in a variety of ways, some of which, such as the polenta alia Milanese, are not devoid of merit.

Before the grains begin to harden, the ears — bereft of their green leaves and their “ beards ” — are often eaten broiled or roasted; and at a more advanced state of maturity they are eaten boiled in water. These are both very primitive forms ; but the first is not without a cer- tain degree of delicacy.