Thomas Jefferson, rightly or wrongly credited with first bringing pasta to the tables of Americans, drew a picture of a pasta-making machine. This drawing, now in the Library of Congress, resulted from a trip to Italy taken by Jefferson in 1787.
Don’t forget that “macaroni” served as a generic name for pasta and doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re talking about elbow macaroni …
Here’s recipe for Macaroni Pudding from Thomas Jefferson’s Cook Book (the recipe actually comes from Mrs. Horace Mann, Marie Kimball’s version of Jefferson’s cook book)
Cook macaroni is milk until tender; 2 ounces to a pint of milk will make a good-sized pudding. Add 5 eggs, 3/4 cup of sugar, flavor with lemon or rose water and bake one hour.