When I initially wrote about Microwave Magic (produced by the staff of Farm Wife News, edited by Annette Gohlke, 1977), I just looked at the general impracticality of some of the offerings. As I read, though, I realized that one category of odd and impractical microwave recipes seemed especially appealing to the farm wives: Italian. So today, we're going to check out some of the microwave Italian specialties.
Some recipes seemed fine, but pointless to make in the microwave. The Italian Spaghetti Sauce, for instance, doesn't seem to offer any real advantages when it's microwaved instead of cooked on the stovetop.
This sauce still has to be cooked for nearly 40 minutes, so it's not like it's super speedy. The lack of browning on the hamburger along with the fact that the sauce won't reduce much since it's trapped in a steamy box rather than evaporating on the stovetop means this is unlikely to get a deeper flavor in those 40 minutes. And, while the sauce is splattering the microwave with bits of tomato that will be a real pain in the ass to scrub out later, the cook has to make spaghetti on the conventional stovetop anyway. Unless the kitchen has only a single-burner hot plate, there doesn't seem to be much point to making the sauce in the microwave.
The book also offers some lasagnas. While I have no objections to microwaved pre-made lasagna (and remember buying myself a microwave lasagna as a quick and affordable birthday celebration for one when I was in grad school), I'm not so sure about making a homemade lasagna in the microwave. It seems like the kind of thing that takes enough work, you might as well make it the conventional way so it's more likely to taste good.
Seeing the recipe doesn't change my mind. You can cook the noodles and the filling at the same time on the stovetop, rather than microwaving the noodles for 15 minutes followed by microwaving the meat. I'll admit, the cooking time for the full casserole-- 10 minutes!-- is reduced compared to traditional lasagna, but there's no crusty brown cheese on the top, either. (And I live for cheese that is so brown it's about two seconds shy of burned.)
But wait! There's more! There's also a Poor Man's Lasagna. This amuses me endlessly because 1. In 1977, if you had a microwave, you weren't poor, and
2. I'm not sure what's supposed to make this version cheaper. The ingredients are pretty similar to the ones in the other lasagna. This uses elbow macaroni instead of lasagna noodles, but that's not going to be any significant savings. I guess the savings are in the use of cheddar cheese instead of a mix of cheeses like the cottage, mozzarella, and Parmesan in the other recipe. Whether the difference is substantial enough to make a real difference in the overall grocery budget is a personal call.
Want some puzzling pizzas? No worries! I found a couple of those. When I looked at Topsy Turvy Pizza, I initially thought it was going to be one of the old recipes that used ground beef mixed with a tomato product as the "crust" and topped it with typical pizza toppings.
Then I saw that this included biscuit mix. So what's going on? Well-- it starts out with a microwaved meat-veggie mix, adds soup, then spreads it on a big round of prepared biscuit mix-- to be further microwaved, before being topped with a tiny bit of American cheese (half a slice per serving!) that's microwaved just enough to melt before serving. It sounds much more like a casserole than a pizza.
And speaking of casseroles that masquerade as pizzas (or at least as something pizza adjacent), the opposite page from Topsy Turvy Pizza suggests French Bread Italian.
It's kind of like someone saw Stauffer's French bread pizzas in the frozen aisle and said, "I wonder what those would be like if they were a lot wetter." Then they went home and microwaved French bread in a cheesy custard under a bunch of sausage, Ragu, and mozzarella.
Finally, if you're worried that all these Italian-ish delights might be served without breadsticks, worry not! There's a way to turn those crispy little premade breadsticks (grissini?) into a microwave treat.
Just wrap bacon around them, "'barber pole' fashion," and microwave until the sticks are soft and the bacon is cooked. They'll crisp up again as they cool, and then you'll have an "Italian" feast fit for a '70s family who wants to get some use out of the microwave.
Today I think they would call poor man's lasagna goulash.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that I wasn't the only one perplexed by the idea of dissolving French bread in a swamp of milk and tomato sauce. It seems to me that combination would look really gross. ATK warns people about using milk with tomatoes because of the curdling that will inevitably happen. According to the internet, Ragu didn't release a nationally distributed "white sauce" until 1998, so they weren't meaning that people should use alfredo sauce.
Spoiler alert: Speaking of Ragu, I have a Ragu cookbook from well before 1998. The post is in my draft folder just waiting to go up.
DeleteFor the Poor Man's Lasagna, I think Mrs. Sheryl E. Hill thinks the intentional layering can make this into a lasagna. I think you're right that in practice, this is just American goulash. The layering is unlikely to mean much when there is nothing to keep the layers distinct.