The Most Expensive Dish in Virginia

On Saturday at the Governor's Palace I prepared the most expensive dish available in eighteenth-century Virginia.  To prepare it I used three different cooking methods!  What could it possibly be?

Macaroni.  With cheese.  Yes, my friends, our ubiquitous mac 'n' cheese cost a pretty penny back in the day for those of us in the southern colonies.  We can only verify that this dish was prepared at the Governor's Palace.  Dunmore imported 25 pounds of macaroni noodles from Italy and cheese from Italy and England.  Because the macaroni noodle-making machinery lived in Italy and had not yet made it to Virginia-- or even England-- and the Virginia climate is not suited to producing hard cheeses, the Royal Governor imported every ingredient in this dish.  By the nineteenth century it's gotten a bit cheaper, but as of c.1774, having macaroni with cheese on the table meant you were very wealthy indeed.

To prepare this dish eighteenth-century style, I first boiled the hard noodles in water and a little milk, then drained them off and layered them in a rounded dish-- you could use a deep pie pan.  I put slices of Parmesan and hard English cheddar over top with a little salt, then added another layer of noodles and repeated the process until the bowl had been filled to the top, with pasta as the top layer.  Then, bake it in a "quick" oven, so, perhaps around 350 or so for 20 minutes, until the cheese has melted and the noodles have browned a bit on top.  Then take out your dish, let it cool a few minutes (but not too long) and flip it upside down on a plate so that you get a molded effect-- mine was domed.  Then grate some cheese on top, broil for minute or two, until the cheese bubbles (but not til it's brown and burned), and ta-da!  You have eighteenth-century macaroni.  Enjoy!