We receive all kinds of promotional material here at the office, often samples of packaged food goods from manufacturers. Chocolate, or chips, or granola bars. Usually, we put the stuff out on a file cabinet and, what with all these hungry reporters and editors and designers around here, it’s usually gone quickly.
Recently, we received a big sample of dried prunes, along with plenty of collateral material explaining their various health benefits and snack- friendly qualities.
We dutifully released the prunes to our informal, ongoing group of office taste- testers, only to watch the fruit sit, sullen and lonely like a kid going unpicked for a team at a pickup basketball game. They just didn’t move.
I’ll admit, I’m one of those who ignored the prunes.
But after a few days of watching them, I decided that these prunes needed some attention. After all, I’m not one to let any food go to waste, even if I don’t like it. I wasn’t about to eat a bowl of them, but I’d find something to do with them.
Some free-form wading through my expansive antique cookbook collection (I swear they multiply on their own) brought to my fingertips “Herbs for the Kitchen,” a clever, pithy little 1939 tome by Irma Goodrich Mazza, filled with thoughtful recipes inspired by the herbs she suggested you should be growing in your backyard victory garden.
In it, I found this recipe for “Macaroni From Curzola,” which upon reading (prunes?) sounded suspicious, but upon preparing proved entirely satisfying, robust, sweet (not cloying), meaty, comforting and unique. And cheap.
(Note: Curzola is located just miles from Dubrovnik, along Croatia’s Dalmatian coast in the Adriatic. Its cuisine draws on both Italian and Croatian traditions.)
Economize this dish: Buy your prunes from the bulk section and use stew meat that’s already been cut up.
Mazza uses the word “macaroni” fairly loosely, as one did in the 1930s; while elbow macaroni would be great here, I used ziti.
Macaroni From Curzola
Adapted from “Herbs for the Kitchen,” by Irma Goodrich Mazza. Serves 4.
Ingredients
1 pound boneless beef, cubed
1/3 cup olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 cans (about 14 ounces each) tomato sauce, unseasoned)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
A few gratings of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup dry red wine
Salt and pepper
18 prunes
1/2 pound macaroni or other short pasta
Grated Parmigiano cheese for serving
Directions
Brown meat in oil, then remove. Mince onion and garlic and cook in the same oil slowly for 10 minutes. Add tomato sauce, spices and wine and salt and pepper to taste. Return meat, stir well, and cook slowly for a half hour. Add prunes and cook for another half hour, stirring often to prevent sticking.
Cook macaroni, drain, and dress with the sauce. Add grated Parmigiano cheese and serve.
