Macaroni Roma

 

If you are like me, you will hate waste.  I hate throwing away food.   My mother was the same.  I learned my food thriftiness from her I guess.  In any case, there are people who won't eat leftovers, but they don't live in this house and never have!  I have a way of making leftovers taste even better than the original meal!

 

 This is a simple casserole that really is tasty and so very simple to make.  If you can boil water and have been thrifty enough to save some meat and some of that fabulous gravy, you can make this!

 

It is an adaptation of a recipe I found in a very old cookery book of mine entitled "Twice is Nice" by Edna K Damerall.  I adapted it to use the leftovers I had with most delicious results!

 

Cooked elbow macaroni is seasoned with some herbs and then layered in a casserole dish  along with chopped leftover roast beef, sliced onions, leftover gravy, cream and cheese. 

 

You bake it for a little while and then you lay some sliced tomatoes on top and sprinkle on some herby buttered crumbs and bake it for a little while longer, with the end result being something which is very tasty, not to mention visually appealing and quite economical. 

 

*Macaroni Roma*

Serves 6

Printable Recipe 

I hate waste.  This is a most delicious way to use up some of the leftovers from your Sunday Roast! 

230g of uncooked macaroni (2 cups)

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp dried oregano

1/8 tsp dried basil

1/8 tsp garlic powder

2 cups of diced leftover cooked beef

1 medium red onion, peeled, sliced and separated into rings

120g of finely diced cheddar cheese (1 cup)

60g of grated Parmesan Cheese (1/3 cup)

225ml of leftover gravy (1 cup)

225ml single cream (1 cup)

1 tomato sliced

2 TBS fine dry bread crumbs

1/8 tsp dried thyme

1 TBS butter

 

 Cook the macaroni according to the package directions.  Drain well.   Return to the pot and toss together with the pepper, salt, garlic powder,  oregano and basil.  

Mix the gravy and the cream together.

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Butter a 1 litre casserole dish.  (1 quart)

Layer in the dish as follows:  1/2 macaroni, 1/2 the beef, 1/2 the onion, 1/2 of both cheeses, 1/2 the gravy/cream mixture.   Repeat the layers.  Loosen the mixture gently with a knife so that the sauce filters down through the layers.  Bake for half an hour in the preheated oven.  Remove from the oven and lay the sliced tomato on top.  Melt the butter and mix together with the bread crumbs and the thyme.   Sprinkle this mixture over top of the casserole and bake for 10 minutes longer, until golden brown.

I hope that you will give this a go.  I imagine you could also make it with cooked ground beef and gravy mix and it would also be quite good.  Bon Appetit!