Easter Macaroni

This pasta dish was a tradition in my mother's family for Holy Saturday. In the 1960's the Catholic church in New Jersey imposed meatless Holy Saturdays and her family was not happy. When my daughter Julia visited our relatives in Salerno, Italy, she was delighted to find that they made basically the same recipe, only as a picnic food, not reserved for a holiday.

1 pound of thin spaghetti
one sopresad sausage
about 6 large eggs
as much grated parmesan as you can bear to use
lots of coarsely ground black pepper (whole peppercorns, optional)

Peel the casing off the sausage and cutting it into fine dice. Butter a 9X13 inch baking dish (glass is best).  Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl (big enough to mix in the spaghetti) and stir in the grated cheese and cracked pepper.  Cook the spaghetti, drain it, toss it with the egg mixture, then pitch in the diced sausage and pour it into the greased baking dish.  Try to even out how the  sopresad falls into the macaroni.  Bake at 350  until the top is lightly browned and there are crispy bits.

To make the "vegetarian" version, replace  the sausage with chopped artichoke hearts and combine with broken walnut pieces.  Toss in with the spaghetti and egg mixture.  The amounts are not set, so go with what looks good to you.