Butternut Squash and Lobster Risotto
Tonight's dinner is brought to you by things falling out of the freezer, this morning.
It was 5:30ayem and I was rummaging around the freezer to see what I wanted to thaw for dinner. A little 2-pack of lobster tails took a nosedive onto the floor. I picked them up to put back and knocked a half of a butternut squash - and it fell to the floor. Did I mention it was 5:30ayem?!?
I looked at the two things and decided they weren't going back in - they were dinner. A recipe was born.
Risotto is seriously one of the easiest dishes to make. I think it got its difficulty reputation from restaurants that want to charge a ton of money for three cents worth of rice. Really. If you have 20 minutes, you have risotto.
And at it's core, it's just wine, broth, and rice. Everything else is just what you have on hand and want to add. Tonight, we added lobster and butternut squash. I tend to use either Carnaroli or Vialone Nano rice for risotto because they are both very forgiving. They will maintain texture even as they get creamy and are almost impossible to overcook. Arborio is the rice you are going to find in the grocery store, so use it. I have a box of it, as well. In fact, I have about a dozen rices in the cupboard at any given moment.
I like rice.
Butternut Squash and Lobster Risotto
- 1 cup carnaroli rice (or arborio)
- butter and olive oil
- 1/2 cup onion, minced
- 1/2 bell pepper, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup white wine
- 4 cups clam broth
- 2 small lobster tails, chopped
- 1/2 butternut squash, chopped
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- salt and pepper, to taste
Saute the onion and pepper in the olive oil and butter until the onion is translucent. Stir in the rice and cook until the rice is coated with the oil and beginning to look translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a second or two.
Stir in the wine and stir and cook until it is absorbed.
Stir the clam sauce in 1/2 cup at a time, stirring regularly and adding the next 1/2 cup when the previous has been absorbed.
About midway through, add the squash.
Continue adding broth until it has been mostly absorbed and the rice is al dente.
Stir in the lobster and mix it well as it cooks. It will only take a minute or two.
Stir in the cheese, and then the parsley and oregano.
Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
Twenty minutes.
I use a butter and olive oil mixture for flavor. You can use all of one or the other. Your dish. Your call.
You can switch out the clam broth for chicken, beef, or vegetable broth. Switch out the lobster and butternut squash for mushrooms, chicken - or just about anything you have lying about. Risotto is a great clean-out-the-refrigerator dish!
Have fun with it!
Eggplant Lasagne
He's done it, again. An Eggplant Lasagne that is just out of this world!
I don't even know where to begin.
I mean... just look at those layers of lusciousness. Homemade sauce, breaded and fried eggplant, ricotta, mozzarella, more sauce, fresh basil… layer upon layer of gooeyness, covered, baked, and then sliced into platefuls of gastronomic greatness!
Love it!
In fact, I love it so much I said I wanted it for dinner again, tomorrow night!
This, and a loaf of crusty bread, is what life is all about.
Pizza
I just ordered a pizza pan. It will be here Wednesday. I figured I had better act before the steel and aluminum tariffs treble the price.
In all of my years on this earth, I do not recall ever owning a pizza pan. I guess it's possible that one of my roommates may have had one at some point, but I can't think of one right now.
I've had a pizza stone for years. Before that it was quarry tiles on the oven rack. The current - and final - set-up is my Dough Joe. It lives full-time in the bottom oven. But pizza pans?!? Nope.
For all of the homemade pizzas I've made over the years, it actually surprises me a bit that I never bought one. I guess I thought about it when I was cutting a pizza on the cutting board and then never thought about it, again, until the next time I was pulling one out of the oven.
Today, I slid the pizza into the oven and ordered one before it came out. I'm slowly learning to do things as I think of them. Slowly.
The pizza - sans pan - was excellent! It was made with my most favorite 2-day slow-rise pizza dough.
It is totally and completely foolproof. The minuscule amount of yeast and the refrigerated slow-rise really adds to the flavor. The dough is so easy to work, that kids of all ages could be making professional-looking pizzas their first time in the kitchen.
Reflecting back on those pizza making days at Pirro's, we always made our dough the day before and placed it in bins in the walk-in. I always thought of it as just having lots of backup, but it definitely contributed to the awesome pies we used to produce.
Pizza Dough
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (100º to 105º)
- 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 4 cups “00” flour or unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- Extra-virgin olive oil for bowl
Sprinkle yeast over warm water in bowl of mixer fitted with dough hook. Let proof about 5 minutes.
Mix together flour and salt. Add to yeast mixture. Mix on low speed about 4 minutes or until dough forms a coarse ball. Stop mixer and cover bowl with a towel. Let dough rest about 5 minutes, then remove towel and continue mixing another 2 minutes or so.
Lightly oil a large bowl. Form dough into a ball, transfer to bowl and turn to lightly coat with oil. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes, then refrigerate overnight.
Punch down dough, re-roll, and return to bowl. Tightly cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.
Divide dough into 2 pieces; shape pieces into balls and place on a lightly floured work surface. Loosely cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise at warm room temperature until doubled, about 2 hours.
I have another dough ball in the freezer for next weekend... I think I'm going to make a white pizza...
Ravioli
Have you ever had one of those meals where you just wanted to keep eating... and eating... and eating...?!?
I had one, tonight.
On the surface it was just ravioli. But the sauce... Oh, the sauce... It was simplicity, but it was sublime in its simplicity. Victor took the last jar of his homemade sauce and added ground beef and pancetta. Simplicity. And utterly delicious.
Over cheese ravioli.
Did I mention simple? And delicious?
Every now and again I eat something that really hits the spot - and this was one of those times. It resonated on every level - it was rich, it was meaty, it was flavorful in an almost unexpected way. The big chunks of pancetta were genius. It just worked.
I ate just a little too much, but it was worth having to change into pants with an expandable waist.
And there's more sauce left! I'm thinking it's going to be worked into something fun for Sunday!
Stay tuned...
Chicken Parmigiana
Thursday, I made polenta with a really meaty ragu. It was pretty good, if I do say so, m'self, and we had plenty of the sauce left over. Victor was going to freeze it for another day - but I had other plans. Nefarious plans that finagled him into cooking dinner, tonight.
This was what we had Thursday...
There are two things I do pretty regularly on workdays... the first is take something out of the freezer for dinner, the second is to call home during my lunch break. I took out thin-sliced chicken cutlets this morning, thinking chicken parmigiana would be a fitting dinner, tonight.
When I called home, I casually asked if the sauce had been frozen and mentioned chicken parm. My clever ruse worked! Victor started planning dinner and when I got home there were breaded cutlets in the 'fridge and a baked pasta being prepared.
The cutlets were fried and then topped with sauce and cheese and placed into the oven to heat through and melt the cheese. The pasta was mixed with the sauce, topped with cheese, and baked until hot and the cheese melted. The sat one atop the other in a 350°F oven.
And it was a great dinner! The chicken perfectly crispy-crunchy and saucy and cheesy and the pasta was perfectly cooked, meaty and cheesy, too. Meals just do not suck at our house.
My contribution is a Pineapple Upside Down Cake.
More on that from the link.
Cod, Sausage, and Fennel Cioppino
The latest edition of Fine Cooking magazine arrived a few days ago and one of the first recipes I saw was for a Cod, Sausage, and Fennel Cioppino.
That's all fine and good, but there is only one cioppino - it is Crab Cioppino - made with Dungeness Crab. I'm a San Franciscan. I know these things.
That being said, it's cold outside and I had all the ingredients in the house to make the recipe. I've created worse culinary sacrileges in my life - and the recipe did sound intriguing... Into the kitchen I went...
I freely adapted the recipe, adding a lot more wine, garlic, carrots, bell pepper and I switched out the fennel seeds for fennel pollen - I had it in the cupboard. I used a can of diced tomatoes and some seasonings in place of the marinara. I also added a hefty amount of hot sauce, since Nonna wasn't going to be eating it.
Cod, Sausage, and Fennel Cioppino
adapted from Fine Cooking
- 6 oz. sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 small bulb fennel, trimmed, cored, and thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 carrot, sliced thin
- 1 bell pepper, chopped
- 1 tsp fennel pollen
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 2 cups bottled clam juice
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- hefty pinch crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 lb. skinless cod pieces, cut into 1-inch chunks
- hot sauce, to taste
Break up the sausage and cook over medium-high heat. Add the onion, fennel, carrot, bell pepper, and garlic, and cook, until the vegetables begin to brown and become tender - about 6 minutes.
Add the wine and bring to a boil. Add the clam juice, diced tomatoes, oregano, fennel pollen, and pepper flakes, and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, about 10 minutes.
Add the fish and cook until the fish is cooked through - about 5 minutes.
Season to taste with salt and pepper and add hot sauce, as desired.
It wasn't Dungeness Crab, but it wasn't bad by any means. The broth was really rich and flavorful and every ingredient just complimented the next. A perfect meal for a snowy day - and no crab shells to deal with!
I can see more of this, this winter!
Beef Agrodolce
The Chicken Agrodolce I made on New Year's Day has been taunting me.
With so many good things to cook, I try not to immediately repeat myself, but there was something about that dish that really spoke to me. So..... I decided I should make a beef variation of it and serve it over pasta - I get something similar and I get something new.
I'm glad I did. It worked. Well.
I took the original concept and ran with it. I got an assortment of olives from the olive bar at Wegman's along with one spicy pepper. Yum!
Beef Pasta Agrodolce
- 1 lb stew meat in large chunks
- flour for dredging
- olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 leeks, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 2 tbs. red wine vinegar
- 1 14oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 6oz can tomato paste
- 1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers
- 1 1/2 cups chopped assorted olives
- 1 cup red wine
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 2 Tbs. capers
- salt and pepper, to taste
- pasta of your choice - I used Gigli
Dredge beef in flour and brown in dutch oven. Remove from pot and set aside. Add a bit more olive oil, if needed, and saute leeks, carrots, celery, and garlic until wilted. Add tomato paste and cook about a minute.Add the red wine and bring to a boil, scraping up the bits on the bottom of the pot. Add the beef to the pot and cook until wine is reduced a bit.
Add remaining ingredients, and bring to a boil, cover, and place in a 350°F oven for about 3 hours, stirring every hour or so. (You can also simmer on the stove - I like the oven - no muss, no fuss.)
Serve with pasta.
This worked. It was rich, it was hearty, it was beefy, it was filling.
It was everything a good long-simmering sauce should be. We had last night's rolls to sop up the sauce - not that they were truly necessary, but... if you're gonna gorge, go big.
I can see doing something like this, again... maybe an Easter Lamb?!?
Hmmmmmmm.........
Orecchiette with Fennel and Tuna
We were watching Jacques Pépin - one of my most favorite chefs - the other night when he came up with an Orecchiette with Fennel and Tuna that just sounded outrageous. It was just so simple I knew I had to make it.
I have been a fan of his since his first TV show 20-whatever years ago. What I really appreciate about him is his candor in how his cooking has evolved. He talks about how, when he was younger, he would be looking for more ingredients, more garnishes - ways to really take something over the top, his adapting from classic French to production cooking at Howard Johnson's, and today, it's about simplicity. Less ingredients, less fuss... letting a few quality ingredients speak for themselves.
That is something I can totally relate to. I did mom-and-pop restaurants, a Navy aircraft carrier, 1000 room hotels, and a 99 bed hospital. Once upon a time, I loved to cook classic French with all the sauces and 527 steps to create a simple dish. Now, it's more rustic Italian or rustic French. Simple foods that speak volumes simply because of their simplicity. Even my desserts have toned down. I'm much more interested in canning things from the garden - making liqueurs and hot sauce. Not taking any of it seriously.
Tonight's dinner is a classic example of that concept.
Armed with a bag of organic Orecchiette from Puglia, I set out to do it justice. And while I was at it, I baked a loaf of my favorite bread from Puglia! I had the biga in the 'fridge...
Orecchiette with Fennel and Tuna
adapted from Jacques Pépin
- 1/2 lb Orecchiette
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup pine nuts
- 1 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- 1 bell pepper, cut into thin strips
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 6oz can of tuna (packed in oil, preferred)
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Start cooking orecchiette.
In a large skillet, saute onion in olive oil until translucent. Add pine nuts and cook until they begin to lightly brown and are fragrant.
Add sliced fennel and stir or flip pan until fennel is on bottom and pine nuts on top. Add a bit of pasta water. Cover, and cook about 3 minutes.
Uncover and add bell peppers. Cook a few minutes and add the garlic. Continue cooking and add the tuna and raisins.
Cover, again, and cook until vegetables are tender - just a few more minutes.
Drain pasta and stir into fennel. Stir in parsley and cheese.
Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
This really is stellar. I have to admit I was unsure of the canned tuna, but it totally made the dish. We both ate our fill - and then some. And... there's plenty left over for a couple of lunches.
So thanks, Jacques! I may just have to dust off a couple of your cookbooks and see what else I can come up with! The countdown to retirement is on - and the key word is simplicity!
Spaghetti and an Epiphany
I learned something new, today. I have always thought that Twelfth Night was January 6th - the Epiphany. It appears that it can also be January 5th!
My way of reckoning starts the first of the Twelve Days of Christmas on December 26th. The Church of England starts the First Day of Christmas on Christmas Day! Who knew?!?
Tradition also states that Christmas Decorations are supposed to be down by Twelfth Night or risk bad luck. Well... we blew that one regardless of which day it is - the decorations are still ablaze. We will probably start taking them down tomorrow. Once upon a time, we took them down on New Year's Day. Now... we put it off as long as possible. I'd leave it all up until Easter if I thought I could get away with it.
With it being colder than an ice cube outside, we may as well start moving and get it done. There's only 20 or so bins that need to come back up from the basement, get filled, and hauled back down...
Piece of cake.
Speaking of cake, we had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.
Once upon a time, that would not have been remarkable - we had it all the time. But when Nonna decided she no longer liked spaghetti, we stopped for a long time. The past few months have seen us cooking two meals more often. Her list of dislikes keeps growing. It's actually easier to cook two meals than try and cook something we will all eat.
I made the meatballs back in December and froze them. The sauce was Victor's. Garlic bread on the side. The perfect meal after a long day.
Dessert is going to be brownies with a chocolate ganache.
Time to put the feet up!
Sicilian-Style Chicken Agrodolce
Since the demise of the US version of La Cucina Italiana, my go-to recipe magazine has become Fine Cooking. It's an easy-to-read magazine and they actually treat their readers like they have a bit of intelligence. Not a bad start.
They also come up with some interesting ideas for food. Tonight's dinner is compliments of two past issues.
I had a whole chicken in the 'fridge and just wanted to cook up half of it and freeze the other half for another day. I thought braising the chicken would be an easy dinner and set out to look for a recipe.
I have - or, rather, had - a few hundred recipes bookmarked under a "food" folder in my browser. It's my new way of finding and keeping recipes I'll probably never make. I was actually going through them and organizing them a bit - and deleting all of the dead links from who knows how long ago - when I came upon a Fine Cooking recipe I had bookmarked for a Sicilian Pollo Agrodolce - Sweet and Sour Chicken. I decided it was kismet and I printed it off.
A little further down the list was a recipe for Potatoes Boulangère - a potato gratin without the cheese and cream. I think that on any other day I would have made one or the other, but today, I decided to make both. It's a holiday, after all, right?!? Right!
I spent some time going through and deleting things I know I'll never make and creating folders for the other stuff I probably will never make but aren't ready to delete and then it was off to the kitchen...
Chicken Agrodolce
- 1/2 chicken, cut into 5 pieces
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Flour for dredging
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 small onion, cut into small dice
- 1 small rib celery, cut into small dice
- 1 small carrot, cut into small dice
- 2 Tbs. sugar
- 2 Tbs. good-quality white-wine vinegar (I used an aronia berry wine vinegar from Jalma Farms in Cape May)
- 1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers
- 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
- 18 grape tomatoes
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 cup golden raisins
- 1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
- 2 Tbs. capers
Pat the chicken pieces dry, season them with salt and pepper, and dredge them lightly in the flour.
Heat a-large sauté pan fitted with a lid over medium-high heat and add the 1/4 cup olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the chicken pieces (in batches, if necessary), browning them very well on both sides. When browned, remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
Turn the heat to medium and add the onion, celery, and carrot. Sauté until they’re soft and fragrant, about 6 or 7 minutes. Add the sugar and vinegar to the pan and let it bubble for about 1 minute. Add the peppers and tomatoes.
Return the chicken pieces to the pan and turn them over in the vegetables once or twice to coat them. Increase the heat to medium and add the wine, letting it boil until almost evaporated. Add the chicken stock and bay leaf, cover the pan, and simmer on low heat until the chicken is just about tender, 30 to 35 minutes, turning the pieces once or twice during cooking.
Add the raisins, pine nuts, and capers and simmer to blend the flavors, about 5 minutes. longer. The sauce should be reduced and thickened but still pourable. If it looks too dry, add a splash of chicken stock or water. Taste for seasoning. It should have a nice balance between sweet and sour but not be too aggressive. Add more salt, pepper, a splash of vinegar, or a pinch of sugar to balance the flavors.
Arrange the chicken on a large serving platter and pour the sauce over.
I like braised, saucy dishes and this one has a lot of future possibilities. I can see this with boneless thighs and served over creamy polenta...
Stay tuned.
And then we had the potatoes...
I do have to admit that these wouldn't be my first choice for serving with a dish like this - but I wanted to make them, so I did.
Potatoes Boulangère
- 1 Tbs. olive oil
- 3-1/2 oz. diced pancetta
- 2 cups onions, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- Scant 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 2 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch-thick half moons
- 1 cup chicken broth
Heat the oven to 375°F. Heat the olive oil in a medium (9-inch) Dutch oven over medium heat.
When the oil is hot, add the pancetta. Sauté until it just begins to crisp and turn brown, about 4 min.
Add the onions, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally and more frequently toward the end, until the onions are deep golden, about 14 min.
Meanwhile in a small saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a boil and then remove from the heat.
Add the potatoes to the onions and cook, stirring for a minute or two. Pour the hot broth over the potatoes and onions and bring the pot to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
Cover the pot, put it in the oven, and bake for about 15 min.
Uncover the pot, gently and evenly push the potatoes down with a spatula, and continue to bake uncovered until the potatoes are completely tender and have started to brown, about another 25 min.
The potatoes seriously rocked. They may become my new go-to!
So meals are completed for the first day of 2018. Well... other than dessert, that is.
It was a great day to be inside and in the kitchen. And that's where you will probably find me most of the year!
Pepperoni Pizza
I really can't remember the last time we had pizza for dinner. It's definitely been a while. I've made flatbreads as side dishes or hors d'oeuvres - but not a plain ol' pepperoni pizza.
Tonight, we decided to rectify the situation.
There was a time in my life when just about all I did eat was pizza. Those days at Pirro's - hell, those years at Pirro's - pretty much killed pizza for me. It was years before I could look one in the face - and I'm still pretty particular about the pizza I eat. You will never see a stuffed crust chain pizza delivery whatever in this house. Ever.
But a good pizza is not something to pass up and by the time I made it to the east coast the first time, I could handle getting a slice at any number of places.
Pizza dough is one of those things I can make in my sleep - it's just flour, water, salt, and yeast - but about 5 years ago I found a recipe in La Cucina Italiana - when they still had an English edition - that was a 2-day slow rise with just a pinch of yeast. I gave it a try and it's now the dough of choice. The drawback is you have to plan your pizza-making. The good news is the dough freezes.
Pizza Dough
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (100º to 105º)
- 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 4 cups “00” flour or unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- Extra-virgin olive oil for bowl
Sprinkle yeast over warm water in bowl of mixer fitted with dough hook. Let proof about 5 minutes.
Mix together flour and salt. Add to yeast mixture. Mix on low speed about 4 minutes or until dough forms a coarse ball. Stop mixer and cover bowl with a towel. Let dough rest about 5 minutes, then remove towel and continue mixing another 2 minutes or so.
Lightly oil a large bowl. Form dough into a ball, transfer to bowl and turn to lightly coat with oil. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes, then refrigerate overnight.
Punch down dough, re-roll, and return to bowl. Tightly cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.
Divide dough into 2 pieces; shape pieces into balls and place on a lightly floured work surface. Loosely cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise at warm room temperature until doubled, about 2 hours.
Start with a dough ball and on a lightly-floured board, press down and flatten it with your fingertips.
Stretch into a circle. The easiest way - really - is just to toss it in the air a bit. Just drape it over your hands and flip it a bit with your fingertips. If you can't manage that, smack it with your hands and roll it with a rolling pin. But you'll miss out on the fun and experience.
Next is the sauce... I make a pretty basic sauce with some of our home-canned tomato sauce, tomato paste, a teeny splash of wine if I need to thin it a bit, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano.
And then the cheese... I think I actually prefer low moisture mozzarella for a pepperoni/meat pizza, but 1) I'm not a fanatic about it and 2) I had fresh in the house.
Finally, the pepperoni, a bit of grated parmesan cheese, and a sprinkle of oregano - and into the oven.
The two of us finished this off. Nonna had chicken and mashed potatoes.
It really was everything I was hoping for - and it was a great motivator to make another batch of dough and get a couple of dough balls into the freezer. The dough really does gain flavor by the slow refrigerated risings - and it honestly is easy to do.
So make some!
Ragu alla Bolognese - Ricetta Antica
We were watching a rerun of one of Lidia's programs the other night when she started making a Bolognese sauce - with milk. It was one of those "aha" moments - as in we're going to have to make this really soon.
Really soon translated to a mere two days, and armed with Lidia's cookbook Lidia's Family Table, Victor went to work. There are two variations on the ragu - the tradizionale with wine and tomatoes that is the most common, today - and the antica - an older variation that has fallen out of favor. We went for the antica!
The process is interesting... The wine gets poured and worked into the meat before it's cooked, the pancetta and garlic get processed into a paste - a pestata - and a three hour simmer with additions of hot milk or broth every 20 minutes. It's a process - but really worth it!
Ragu alla Bolognese - Ricetta Antica
adapted from Lidia's Family Table
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 6 ounces pancetta
- 5 large garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion minced
- 2 celery stalks, minced
- 1 carrot, minced
- 1 can tomato paste
- 2 cups of milk
- freshly grated nutmeg
- 2 large bay leaves
- 2 cups of beef broth
- salt to taste
- freshly ground pepper
Break up and mix together ground beef and pork in a large mixing bowl. Pour over wine and mix in with fingers to ensure it's evenly moistened.
Make the pestata: Roughly chop pancetta and place in a food processor with peeled garlic. Process into a fine paste.
In a large heavy pan, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and scrape in the pestata. Place over medium/high heat and break up with a spoon to render the juices.
Once the pestata has started rendering its fat, stir in the minced onion and cook until they start to sweat. Add the minced carrots and celery, stirring until they're all wilted and golden, about 5 minutes.
Turn the heat up a bit, push the vegetables to the side and add your meat mixture to the pan, giving it a few moments to brown on the bottom of the pan before mixing in with the vegetables. Cook on high heat, stirring frequently, for ab.out 30-45 minutes, until all all of the liquid has disappeared. Begin heating up your liquids (milk, broth) for the next steps.
Once again, push aside your meat/vegetable mixture and create a hole to place the tomato paste so it can lightly cook. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Pour in 2 cups of hot milk and stir into the meat mixture, making sure to scrape any brown bits off the bottom of your pan.
Grate the nutmeg into the pan.
Bring the sauce to a slow, steady simmer, consistently bubbling away. Cover and let cook for at least 3hrs, checking and stirring every 20 minutes. Use hot broth to maintain the sauces liquid levels throughout cooking.
To finish the sauce, uncover and allow sauce to simmer into a thicker consistency.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with your favorite pasta - tagliatelle is the traditional pasta - but use what you like. Top with plenty of freshly grated parmesan.
We used a Pipe Rigate pasta instead of the tagliatelle because Nonna doesn't do noodles of any sort. I really liked the pipe rigate, though, because the sauce went into the pasta and there were little sauce explosions in my mouth as I chewed.
The entire dish was swoon-worthy!
The recipe made a lot of sauce, so Victor froze half of it for another meal, and even after dishing out three huge portions, there's enough left for lunch, tomorrow.
We're planning a side trip to Bologna next year when we're in Milan - I want to see the huge Eataly complex - and I now want to see if they can make a sauce this good in Italy!