Macaroni has played a major role in most of our lives, from our first encounters with it as children served up as macaroni and cheese with slices of hot dog or peas in it, to kindergarten when we started making macaroni art to take home to our parents. Macaroni is just such an incredibly versatile little piece of pasta that it deserved its own celebration, and Macaroni Day is it!
History of Macaroni Day
So let us first trace the history of this brave piece of pasta and the role its played in the history of pasta. Yes dear readers, there are in fact other forms of pasta out there than macaroni, sorry to burst your bubble. In fact, there are other forms of macaroni than most people are familiar with. Those little curved pieces that come in the blue box? Those are called elbow macaroni, but they aren’t the only kind there is! So we’re going to let you in on a little secret, and that secret is the origins of the word macaroni.
Makaroneia is the origin of the word, and it’s from the Medieval Greek. What doe sit mean? Well, we’ve always known that macaroni and cheese is a dish worth dying for, so does it surprise you at all that the word Makaroneia means “dirge”, or specifically in the case of the pasta “funeral meal”? We didn’t think so! Macaroni isn’t just used in macaroni and cheese though, it’s also used as the foundation of an American variety of goulash where it serves as the starch component of a heavily meat-laden dish. Macaroni Day encourages you to explore all the possibilities held in this tiny tube of pasta!
How to Celebrate Macaroni Day
The best way to celebrate it is, in our opinion, to head out and get that traditional blue box of macaroni and cheese we all enjoyed as a child. After indulging in a box of nostalgia, it’s time to make that dish grow up! It’s easier than you’d think. Just take a bag of macaroni and boil up enough to serve you and your guests, and then take four kinds of cheese and slowly melt them in a pot on the stove. Start by putting a little milk in the bottom of the pan, then add Sharp Cheddar, Parmesan, Romano, and Mozzarella and stirring until it forms a saucy texture, add more milk and stir thoroughly to get the right consistency.
Don’t be afraid to add some spices in there! Garlic and onion powder, a little Italian seasoning, and to truly make it a masterpiece finish it off by taking the mixed noodles and cheese sauce and top it with bread crumbs and bake it in the oven at 350 until brown. Delish!
