can absorb the liquid. When this is done (and this will take about the
same time as the tomatoes take to bake), pour all the liquid and butter in
the tin on to the rice and stir it well up with some pepper and salt. Put
this on a dish, and serve the tomatoes on the rice with the red, unbroken
side uppermost.


MACARONI.--Macaroni is a preparation of pure wheaten flour. It is chiefly
made in Italy, though a good deal is made in Geneva and Switzerland. The
best macaroni is made in the neighbourhood of Naples. The wheat that grows
there ripens quickly under the pure blue sky and hot sun, and consequently
the outside of the wheat is browner while the inside of the wheat is whiter
than that grown in England. The wheat is ground and sifted repeatedly. It
is generally sifted about five times, and the pure snow-white flour that
falls from the last sifting is made into macaroni. It is first mixed with
water and made into a sort of dough, the dough being kneaded in the truly
orthodox Eastern style by being trodden out with the feet. It is then
forced by a sort of rough machinery through holes, partially baked during
the process, and then hung up to dry. Macaroni contains a great amount of
nourishment, and it is only made from the purest and finest flour. It is
the staple dish throughout Italy, and in whatever form or way it is cooked,
except as a sweet, tomatoes and grated Parmesan cheese seem bound to
accompany it.


SPARGHETTI.--Sparghetti is a peculiar form of macaroni. Ordinary macaroni
is made in the form of long tubes, and when macaroni pudding is served in
schools, it is often irreverently nicknamed by the boys gas-pipes.
Sparghetti is not a tube, but simply macaroni made in the shape of ordinary
wax-tapers, which it resembles very much in appearance. In Italy it is