Macaroni Casserole – Makaronilaatikko

This is a popular classical Finnish dish. The first macaroni casserole was made in 1892 in Helsinki at a cooking school. Macaroni casserole was for many years a dish for special occasions, even a Christmas dish. In the second world war macaroni were used also in the military, but the soldiers were not that thrilled about it and wanted more their “home” potato, milk, rye and beef cuisine.

It was called with non-flattering names, as kitchens were also still in the process how to cook and handle macaroni properly. The early versions of Makaronilaatikko had also no minced meat and were more on the sweet side without onion and spices, but a bit of sugar instead.

With its independence in 1917 Finland founded its own army and gave the industrial food production a big push forward.  As Russian macaroni were no longer an option Hellas Makaroni Oy started producing macaroni in Helsinki about 1915.  Hellas was original a company that made candies, sweets and chocolate, but due to lack of sugar during the war yeas shifted towards macaroni. Macaroni became popular with army, ships, schools and large kitchens.

In 1950 it became a general “home-food-dish” (kotiruoka) and that has not really changed then and for many Finns this is the incarnation of “home-food”.

Ingredients:

400 g Macaroni

400 g Minced meat

1 Large Onion

1 Tbsp Oil

1 tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Concentrated tomato paste

1 tsp Paprika (sweet)

White Pepper

Egg-milk-mix:

3 Eggs

7 dl Milk

½ tsp Salt

Topping:

100 g Grated cheese (Emmental)

Instructions:

Cook the macaroni according to packing instructions “al dente”. Cut the onion finely and fry together with the meat with a bit of oil. Add the spices and cook the meat well.

Mix eggs and milk in a bowl. Add layers of meat and macaroni in an oven dish. Pour at the end the milk-egg mix over it and cook in the oven on the lower rack for about 50 min- 1 hour at 180 degree (no convention).  After roughly half an hour add the cheese.

Note: The milk can be replaced with broth, but then no salt should be used.